The DeSales girls lacrosse team is within a win of a third consecutive Division II state championship, but for the second year in a row no Columbus-area boys team will play for the Division I title.
Central Ohio teams went 1-2 in state semifinals June 3, with DeSales bringing home the lone win, 14-13 over Cincinnati Mariemont at Centerville.
In Division I boys, Upper Arlington fell to defending champion Cincinnati St. Xavier 8-7 at Mason and Dublin Jerome lost to Cleveland St. Ignatius 12-5 at Ashland University.
Here are recaps of all three semifinals involving central Ohio teams:
Cross’ goal sends DeSales girls into state final
Butler University commit Caroline Cross scored a game-high six goals for the Stallions, none bigger than the game-winner with 33.9 seconds remaining.
Mariemont, which had tied the game at 13 with 1:22 left on a Nellie Deeter goal, had a chance to tie it again in the final seconds. Deeter’s penalty shot was stopped by DeSales sophomore goalie Mackenzie Kitchen.
“Honestly, I didn’t watch it. I turned around,” DeSales coach Joe Finotti said. “I just wanted to go with the roar of the crowd. It was a pleasant surprise.”
The final-second save ended a thriller and advanced DeSales to play Bay Village Bay for the championship at 4 p.m. June 7 at Historic Crew Stadium.
Mariemont had a 4-2 lead early in the second quarter, but DeSales ripped off a 6-2 run over the final nine-plus minutes to take an 8-6 lead into halftime. Campbell Heald scored twice in that stretch to tie it 4-4, and the Stallions got unassisted goals from Cross, Lillie Bogan and MC Willison to pull in front.
DeSales had two-goal leads in the second (twice), third and fourth quarters, but Mariemont had an answer each time. Deeter led Mariemont with five goals, while Piper Farrell and Demaree Vianello each scored twice.
“One of our core values is grit,” Mariemont coach Kevin Ferry said. “It sounds arrogant, but I don’t expect anything less from our girls. This is the way they go about their business and I’m very proud of them.”
–Shelby Dermer, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mistakes doom Dublin Jerome boys against St. Ignatius
St. Ignatius’ Colin Roubic scored four of his six goals in the first half, helping stake the Wildcats (17-6) to a 7-1 halftime lead.
Junior midfielder Luke Hegarty scored in the second quarter, senior attacker Jackson Bates and junior attacker Colin Clark added a goal apiece in the second half and junior midfielder Ty Haqq scored twice in the final 5 minutes for the Celtics (14-8), who fell to St. Ignatius in a semifinal on the same field for the second year in a row.
Junior Matthew Esguerra made five saves for Jerome, which had an early goal negated because of an offsides and fell behind 4-0.
“A lot of mistakes were plays we could have made and didn’t,” coach Jon Ewert said. “When we made errors, they did a great job of capitalizing on those. We dug ourselves a hole and they were very patient. They put us in bad spots.
“You get to this point, you can’t make the mistakes we made.”
Zander Boland added two goals and Callaway Connelly made 14 saves for St. Ignatius, which will get a chance to avenge its 2025 final loss to St. Xavier.
Jerome was in its fifth state tournament in six years and seeking its first finals appearance since its most recent title in 2023.
“It doesn’t make it any easier, but in sports … you rarely win your last game,” Ewert said. “There are probably 160-something schools in Ohio that would love to be in the spot that [our players] have earned.”
–Dave Purpura
Emotional postseason ends for Upper Arlington boys
Neither team had lost to in-state competition all season, so something had to give when St. Xavier and UA met in a state semifinal for the sixth time in seven years.
After the Bombers (20-1) opened a 5-0 lead, UA (19-4) clawed back to tie it in the fourth quarter. But in the end, St. Xavier’s defense was the difference.
“That was probably the best defense I’ve seen inside any lacrosse game,” Bombers coach Nate Sprong said. “They have a bunch of Division I guys that are dangerous, and we did a really good job shutting them down.”
St. Xavier plays St. Ignatius in the state final at 1 p.m. June 6 at Historic Crew Stadium.
For UA, the loss ended a postseason that included playing with heavy hearts after the death of former coach Ted Wolford on May 28. Wolford led UA to 16 state championships over 24 seasons before stepping down in 2016.
“He meant so much to everyone in this program,” UA coach Kyle Olson said. “… It’s been a really hard week with that.”
Ryder Munz’s hat trick and two goals from August Betz paced St. Xavier.
All-American and Cornell commit Luke Backes started UA’s rally, scoring two goals in the final 2 minutes of the first half. Pete Dusseau added a goal with just seconds remaining in the first half.
The Golden Bears would score the lone goal of the third quarter to make it 5-4.
After Spencer Stegbauer scored to give the Bombers a two-goal lead, UA got goals from Zeke Winklevoss and Parker Old to make it 6-all with less than 6 minutes to go.
Ethan Cole and DJ Frazier answered with goals for St. Xavier, scoring in quick succession near the 5-minute mark. Backes scored the final goal for UA.
–Chase Souder, The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Dispatch high school sports staff can be reached at sports@dispatch.com and at @DispatchPreps on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: DeSales girls lacrosse advances to state final; Jerome, UA boys fall
Reporting by Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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