Over the past three decades, Geauga County Girls Lacrosse programs have had a lot success.
Game photos click here.
Over the past three decades, Geauga County Girls Lacrosse programs have had a lot success.
In fact, area teams have been successfully competing in Div. II statewide tournaments since 2005.
And since the 2016-2017 school year, Girls Lacrosse has been an officially sanctioned OHSAA varsity sport leading to the recent additions of varsity girls lacrosse programs in Geauga County.
Currently, six Geauga County schools have varsity programs: Chagrin Falls, Chardon, Hawken, Kenston, NDCL and West Geauga.
Tops among Geauga County Girls Lacrosse programs over the past three decades has been the Chagrin Falls Tigers who have finished as state runners up eight times (2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022) and made the Final Four in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Along with the Tigers success, the Chardon Hilltoppers Girls Lacrosse Team has recently emerged as one of their top rivals.
In 2023, the Hilltoppers made their first ever OHSAA Regional Title game, and then followed that up with a trip to the OHSAA Regional Semifinals in 2024.
Going 55-20 over the past four years under the leadership of Coach Alison Platz and returning her senior daughter, NCAA Div. I Mercyhurst commit Payton Platz, the Hilltoppers certainly have every reason to be optimistic as the 2025 season begins.
The Hilltoppers’ 17-7 opening day victory on March 21 over the NDCL Lions at Lions Stadium at Lozick Field, showcased the superb talent of the Hilltoppers’ Payton Platz as she took over the match in the final 16 minutes.
For most of the contest between the Hilltoppers and Lions, it was a back and forth game of runs.
Although the Lions Girls Lacrosse team is coming off a challenging 2024 season in which they went 5-11, they are now led by one of the area’s top coaches, Pamela Malone.
Malone won two state championships as a soccer coach at Chagrin Falls and also led the Tigers Girls Lacrosse Team for three years. In addition, Malone is a certified coach trainer for the Positive Coaching Alliance.
With Platz and Malone on the sidelines leading their teams in the season opener, the first quarter was a low scoring defensive battle with the Hilltoppers taking an early 1-0 lead.
The Hilltoppers then quickly went up 2-0 just 33 seconds into the second quarter when sophomore Riley McKenna found the back of the net.
But the Lions were not deterred as sophomore Elizabeth Keefe and senior Catherine Melin netted goals to even the game at 2-2 with 8:03 left in the first half.
However, in the remaining minutes of the second quarter, Platz scored two and McKenna added one to give the Hilltoppers a 5-2 lead heading into intermission.
After halftime, just when it seemed like the Hilltoppers had regained the momentum and an insurmountable lead, the Lions kept fighting back.
Over the first 8:12 of the third period the Lions outscored the Hilltoppers 4-2.
Grace Hinkel (2 goals), a Mars Hill University commit, Maggie Kane, and Ava Abounader netted goals to help the Lions to get within one goal of the Hilltoppers at 7-6 with 3:48 left in the third quarter.
It was at this point that Payton Platz, took over the game.
Over the next 9:48 of game time, Platz was virtually unstoppable finding the back of the net seven times and putting the game out of reach for the Lions.
Payton Platz credited her teammates and the energy on the sidelines with the end of the game dominance shown by the Hilltoppers.
“The energy on the sideline is just something that I feel like just helps push us to be like ‘okay we’re still in this, we got this,” Payton Platz said.
In reflecting upon the opening day victory, Coach Platz was impressed with the improvement the Lions have made in just one year.
“NDCL has significantly improved since last year, they’re a much different team, a much more aggressive team and I think it may have caught us by surprise,” Coach Platz said.
Coach Platz also discussed Payton’s amazing performance, and in particular what she believed allowed Payton to have such great offensive success.
She noted that Payton was very patient in allowing opportunities to open up on the field of play in order to aggressively make runs toward the goal.
“(Payton) was a lot more patient in terms of her drive, in creating her own spacing on the drive, versus waiting for someone else to do it for her,” said Coach Platz.
Coach Platz said that being aggressive and driving to the goal to take shots on net is the next step in Payton’s development.
“The way her game has developed, this is the next step for her, I was very proud of her,” said Coach Platz.
In addition to Payton Platz’s dominant offensive performance, the Hilltoppers were also led offensively by junior Kaelyn Cardina (3 goals), McKenna (2) and senior Morgan Slack (2).
Leading the Lions offensively was Abounader (2 goals), Hinkel (2), Kane (1), Keefe (1), and Melin (1).
