The DeSales girls lacrosse team finished its third consecutive championship season with an overpowering performance in the Division II state final June 7 at Historic Crew Stadium.
Stallions senior attacker Campbell Heald tied the title game record of seven goals that she set a year ago, but the Brown signee said that wasn’t on her radar as much as the other marks her team set in a 21-9 rout of Bay Village Bay.
DeSales (22-1) set records for goals in the game, regardless of gender – eclipsing the 20 from the school’s boys team in 2022 against Chagrin Falls – as well as margin of victory.
Nine Stallions scored in a game in which DeSales led 7-1 in the first quarter and invoked the running clock midway through the fourth. DeSales finished the season with 429 goals, smashing the previous state record of 401 set by Olentangy Liberty in 2023.
Heald, who also had two assists, is one of two players in state history – both girls – to eclipse 500 career points.
“It’s my teammates recognizing when to cut through and set up opportunities,” Heald said. “We just have so many girls on our offense [who can make plays]. … It’s special because every year, it’s a different group of girls. I get so excited for all the freshmen who get to experience this for the first time. It really doesn’t get old no matter how many times you experience it.”
Senior midfielder and Clemson signee Anna Bogan added four goals, junior attacker Mary Claire Willison had three and DeSales outshot Bay 34-17.
“They tried to faceguard Campbell in the first half and we talked about that in practice, prepared for that,” Stallions coach Joe Finotti said. “We have too many other shooters [and] talent on offense for them to think they can take out one girl and have us not be able to put the ball in the back of the net. And her teammates showed that.”
Bogan and Heald each scored twice in the first quarter.
By halftime, DeSales led 12-5 while outshooting Bay 22-9 and winning 11 of 18 draws, most of those coming from Bogan.
Bogan said a 14-13 semifinal win over Cincinnati Mariemont on June 3 paid dividends in the final.
“Being able to be competitive off the draw and get as many as we did, it helped our offense calm down a little bit,” Bogan said. “That [semifinal] game definitely helped. I’m not even going to lie – it was probably one of the worst games we have played all season, and being able to still come out on top and see everything we did between zone and man defenses, overcoming those adversities, it definitely helped prepare us for this one.”
Hadley Clark, Layla Meaux and Jill Tennant each scored twice for Bay (19-5), which was in its fourth straight state tournament. The Rockets also lost to DeSales in the 2024 final.
“We knew they were going to have a tough offense and we had a slow start that got in our heads,” Bay coach Victoria Budzyn said. “They moved the ball really, really well on attack. We knew if we got into our offense we would be able to settle the ball a little bit and control the clock, but it all comes from the draw and they were killing it on the draw.”
DeSales goalie Mackenzie Kitchen, a sophomore, made eight saves. Bay’s Sophia Crimaldi stopped seven shots.
Ranked second in the state regardless of division by LaxNumbers.com behind only Division I runner-up Upper Arlington, DeSales is 61-7 the last three seasons. Five of those losses came in 2024, and UA is the only team to defeat the Stallions since.
“It’s not an easy thing to come back every year with expectations and a bull’s-eye on your back,” Finotti said. “There is a lot of work that goes into this, but this team, these seniors, they definitely make it look easy.”
(This story has been updated with quotes, new photos and a gallery.)
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: DeSales girls lacrosse smashes records, wins third straight OHSAA title
Reporting by Dave Purpura, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Dave Purpura, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
