Eighteen is a lucky number for the Eureka girls lacrosse team.
The Wildcats scored 18 goals and held Mary Institute-Country Day School to 10 to claim the Missouri State Lacrosse Association championship May 25 at Missouri Baptist University. It’s Eureka’s first state title in the sport, sealed with the team’s 18th win of the season in 19 matches.
Eureka had lost the previous two state finals, to MICDS in 2022 and last season to John Burroughs. The Wildcats beat the Bombers (16-4) 11-10 in the semifinals May 23. MICDS finished 17-4.
After losing senior starter Bailey Boulay to a season-ending injury early on, and needing to replace their entire 2023 defense, some questioned whether Eureka could make it back to the finals for a third straight year. But Boulay is only one of five Wildcats who will play college lacrosse, and their offense was the most potent in the MSLA.
“It was quite a roller coaster,” said Eureka head coach Melissa Menchella, a former Wildcat player herself. “We started off at the jamboree and I didn’t know what to expect. We had to change things up, and at the jamboree the girls were lights-out and their intensity was like I’d never seen before.
“I thought we had a shot again this year. Bailey went down and adversity came. But the girls played for Bailey. As the season went on, the momentum was gaining. Having seniors who’d been there two times, they were like, ‘This isn’t happening again.’”
In the final, Eureka scored five goals in each of the first two quarters and led the Rams 10-4 at halftime. Senior midfielder Kylee Pickens scored the game’s first goal and finished with three goals on five shots. Pickens doubled her goal production this season from 33 to 71, making her the third-leading scorer in the St. Louis area. She’s headed to Rockhurst University in Kansas City.
“My favorite part was scoring the first goal,” Pickens said. “I got the draw and had a fastbreak and went straight in and shot it. I feel like I set the tone for the game.
“Being able to score that many goals was very cool. We had such a good attack.”
For Pickens, also a key member of the school’s basketball team that had a record of 42-18 and a fourth-place state finish (2023) over the last two years, this was her third year of lacrosse.
“My first year, I was getting my bearings and learning the sport, but I was timid,” Pickens said. “My junior year, I knew we were capable of going back (to the state final), and we had girls step up and fill those (key) roles. (This) year we started off with Bailey getting injured and that was hard for all of us. We had to learn how to play without her.”
Menchella said Pickens’ first goal in the final “is what she does best. She gets the draw for herself and gets a fastbreak and it was a statement goal. No one can keep up with her speed.”
But Pickens wasn’t the whole show. Junior attacker Ruby Copeland led Eureka in the final with four goals and three assists. Copeland was the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer this season with 60 goals. She flung in seven goals on seven shots against Visitation in April.
“Ruby and I worked well together,” Pickens said. “When I drove and her defender would slide over, she’d cut at the girl at the right time.”
Sophomores Amelia Craig (four goals), Brooke Samuelsson (three goals, one assist) and Alyssa Olivia (one goal), junior Katie Criswell (two goals, two assists) and senior Emily Henderson (one goal) supplied the rest of the offense against the Rams. Senior Kaitlin Reis was the winning goalie in her final match as a Wildcat. This was her first season as the regular starter.
In the one-goal win in the semifinals, Reis helped preserve the lead.
“(Reis) made valuable saves in the last 20 seconds when John Burroughs got the ball to their leading scorer and the defense all collapsed on the ball and there weren’t any fouls,” Menchella said. “(Our defenders) made the right decisions under high pressure. That was the game-winner.”
Copeland (one goal, one assist), Craig (two goals, one assist), Criswell (three goals), Henderson (four goals) and Pickens (one goal) accounted for the scoring against the Bombers.
Henderson was one of the Wildcats who filled the void left by Boulay, a 1,000-point career scorer for the basketball team.
“Emily wasn’t anticipated as being a starter and she gained momentum,” Menchella said. “She’s so aggressive and athletic. Her ability to get to the cage is amazing., I told her she was the one nobody would expect and she was a force against John Burroughs. She was a big difference in that game.”
Besides Pickens, the other seniors who plan to keep playing at the collegiate level are Boulay (Maryville University), Reis (Alma College in Alma, Mich.), Lucy Kneer (DePauw University in
Greencastle, Ind.) and Ximena Prieto (Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware).
Counting the regular season, Eureka was 4-0 against John Burroughs and MICDS.
“That’s the most incredible thing I’ve seen,” Menchella said. “It shows what kind of fighters these girls are. I’ve never seen a group so trusting. Facing Burroughs and MICDS back-to-back is quite a mountain to get past.”
Markers erase years of frustration to win soccer final
Penalty kicks are the last resort in settling a marathon soccer match. And Eureka and Nerinx Hall were less than three minutes away from that deciding the Class 4 girls state soccer championship.
For 107 minutes and 33 seconds Saturday at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton, the two schools battled well into a second overtime without resolution of a 1-1 tie game. Then Nerinx senior forward Lauren Seppi, the Markers’ leading scorer this spring with 14 goals, including five game-winners, was awarded a penalty shot on an aggressive attack.
Seppi blasted the ball high underneath the crossbar and past Eureka goalie Stella Eremita to lift Nerinx (17-3-1) to a 2-1 victory.
“She’s our best all-around player and she takes all of our awarded PKs,” said Nerinx Hall head coach Brian Haddock, who finally got his team over the top after four consecutive years of second-place finishes. It’s the all-girls school’s first state title in the sport since 1988. “If you checked the boxes of a Division I player, she might not be the best at one thing, but she’s great at eight or nine things.”
The PK was awarded on a foul called on Eremita, a senior, who played brilliantly during the postseason run and more than once made saves that extended the season for Eureka (20-4).
“Stella got tangled up and the ball was bouncing,” Eureka head coach Mike Hanna said. “It’s unfortunate, but hey, that’s how it goes. The only reason we were in this game that long was because of how she played.”
“We earned that foul,” Haddock said. “The last couple of years those things didn’t go our way.”
In the second overtime, Wildcat senior back Callaway Combs and junior midfielder Claire Stam were slapped with yellow cards within a minute of each other.
The outcome was the exact opposite of the teams’ previous meeting in April when the Wildcats beat the Markers 2-1 in double OT. Going into the state final, Eureka carried a 12-game winning streak, including a 1-0 victory in the quarterfinals over seven-time state champion St. Dominic.
It rained lightly Friday when Eureka beat Blue Springs South 3-2 in the semifinals. Rain greeted fans again Saturday, but stopped before the national anthem and the skies eventually cleared.
Just before halftime at 36:55, junior forward Anna Rosenberg gave Nerinx a 1-0 lead when she took a center pass from senior forward Haley Braun five yards in front of Eremita and buried a shot into a lower corner of the goal.
“We can possess with the best of them, but with teams like Eureka, Jackson and Lee’s Summit, we had to grind it out against those horses,” Haddock said. “We’re not the biggest team, compared to the last couple of years, but we’re definitely faster.”
Eureka senior Blaine Schutte, who led the Wildcats in scoring this season with 19 goals and 15 assists, tied the game 1-1 at 50:03 when she hit a header off a free kick from junior back Caroline Orf past Marker senior goalie Caroline Ritter.
“Blaine has been a rock star all year for us,” Hanna said. “I expected her to step up big and she did. We’ve been dangerous on set pieces all year. We like our chances on them.”
After the game, Schutte clutched the second-place trophy as she hugged and talked with the families and fans who flooded onto the field. She’ll continue playing soccer at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I’d never played in that atmosphere before, with that many fans and everyone cheering your name when you come off the field or when you score. It was unreal.
“We fought until the end. We’ve been in that double-overtime situation before. We’ve won those games. We thought we could tuck one away (in overtime) tonight.”
In the semifinals, sophomore forward Marleigh Allen scored two goals, but she couldn’t break through against the Markers, who did a good job of pinching off the Wildcats’ attacks from the wings. Both teams tried to beat each other to the sidelines, forcing restarts and possession turnovers. They also substituted freely, more so as the game wore on.
“They’re good everywhere,” Hanna said. “We got some looks and had some chances and we finished one. (We) made it interesting and put the pressure on them, but ultimately they found one more.”
The Wildcat coach added that he thought the Markers would feel the pressure of those four straight second-place finishes.
“I’m happy for Haddock, he’s a good friend,” Hanna said. “As bad as this feels now, I can’t imagine losing four in a row.”
Haddock said the coaches and players welcomed the challenge.
“What’s the alternative, to not be in this five years in a row?” he said. “And when you talk about pressure, it’s an opportunity to succeed. Once you crack that door, the rest is history and they made that tonight.
“I’d like to thank (our) 26 girls. This is sweet, but the journey and the process to get here – the close calls, the PK losses, the OT loss to Liberty North last year – it makes this that much sweeter. When you do it, knowing the alums who didn’t get there, it makes the whole community light up.”
Besides Schutte, Eremita and Combs, the game is the end of the line for Wildcat seniors Kori Robinson, Anna Beam, Ava Paoli and Isabella Kiser.
“We knew this was going to be a battle and hoped we’d end up on the right side of things, and unfortunately a bouncing ball gets loose,” Hanna said. “We played great and I couldn’t be happier for the girls and the season they had. The process was a lot of fun and it was a hell of a ride.”
Post 177 looks to take next step after district title
After winning the District 10 tournament and finishing 26-8 last year, the Eureka Post 177American Legion baseball team is hungry to surpass that success.
In his fourth season as manager, Noah Baker hopes that means a trip to North Carolina in August for the Legion World Series.
“Winning the last game of the year is the goal,” said Baker, who also coaches the freshman team at Eureka High. “I’d like to get past zone and win state. You hear coaches say that and people scoff, but the whole point is winning late so when it gets to the end, the boys are ready for it. We have the talent to do it. Hopefully, we make that big push at the end.”
Post 177 began the season by sweeping a home-and-home series May 28-29 with District 10 rival Ballwin Post 611.
In the season-opener. Eureka hosted and used eight hits, five walks and five hit batters to win 13-2 in a six-inning game shortened by the 10-run mercy rule. Righthander Cole Edmiston pitched all six innings for Post 177, striking out six and allowing four hits. Batting eighth, Luke Fisher was three-for-four with a double, three RBIs and two runs scored. Will Fieser, Jackson Skaggs and Tyler Marchi each scored two runs.
In a 15-3 win at Ballwin the next day, Eureka pounded out 13 hits, including four doubles and a triple, and drew six walks. Leadoff batter Ty Munk was three-for-three, drew a walk and scored four runs. Batting behind Munk, Brett Barnett was two-for-four with a triple, four runs batted in and two runs scored. Skaggs had two RBIs and two stolen bases. Brady Kirn, Jacob Kranawetter and Fieser combined on the mound to allow only three hits and Kranawetter got credit for the victory.
“Ballwin is usually a very good team, so to come out with a win there is impressive,” Baker said. “We’ve been doing really well. The base running is something I’m really impressed with.”
Eureka and Manchester Post 208 each scored two runs in their District 10 meeting May 30 before Manchester plated a run in the fifth and held on to win 3-2. Drew Nichols pitched all six innings for Post 177, striking out six and allowing five hits. Munk and Barnett scored for Eureka with Fieser and Skaggs driving them in.
When he’s not pitching, Nichols is behind the plate. Baker has coached him since he was in eighth grade.
“It’s cool seeing him grow and go through the ranks,” Baker said. “Last year he had a great mentor in Ian Funk and he’s finally putting it together on the field. I’m excited to see him play a full summer and take care of the pitching staff.”
Fisher plays first base when he’s not on the mound; he’s also been coached by Baker for years.
“He hits the tar out of the baseball and he’s got a couple extra-base hits already,” Baker said.
Munk returns for his second season on the varsity and mans second base. Baker said he’s looking for Munk to improve at the plate.
“He had a good spring in high school (Eureka High),” Baker said.
Skaggs can play almost anywhere but will mostly be at shortstop.
Marchi plays third base, and Baker said he takes quality at-bats.
The outfield features Fieser in center, Oliver Orendain in right and Andrew Shepard in left. Baker said Fieser has the best raw power at the plate he’s seen and noted that Orendain has risen through the 177 ranks the last four years.
Edmiston will be Eureka’s workhorse on the mound. He was one of the leaders of Eureka High’s pitching staff this spring with a 5-0 record and a 2.31 earned run average over 39 1/3 innings pitched. He had 34 strikeouts while walking only six.
“He’s excited to get some hardware this summer and worked on pitches all winter long,” Baker said.
“He came out really strong against Ballwin.”
Kranawetter just completed his freshman year at East Central College in Union.
“He’s throwing harder than he’s ever thrown,” Baker said. “Once he gets settled in with live batters, he’ll be great this summer.”
Fieser throws a heavy fastball in the 80s and has some good off-speed stuff as well. Nathan Buchman will be a starting pitcher and Munk will come out of the bullpen.
For the first time in decades, Post 177 will play some home games in Eureka at Lyons Park and Legion Park.