Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: SHP’s Molly Pepper

“I remember a year ago, sitting on these stands watching it and knowing I could be there next year,” Molly said. “And Katie has always just put in that anger with the rivalry, and it’s always just been something that I could look forward to. And I’ve looked forward to this game since ... three years ago. And now that I was here, I was like, I need to use this as my moment.”

Molly did just that with SHP returning to the CCS Division I championship stage Saturday at Carlmont, as the freshman turned in the game of her life. Moving up to the attacker position, she scored six goals for the No. 2-seed Gators in a 10-8 upset of No. 1 St. Ignatius.

Along with her game-high scoring output, Molly Pepper has earned the title of Daily Journal Athlete of the Week.

“Now that I’m here, I was so proud of myself that I got here, and I was proud of my team,” Molly said. “So, I just wanted to do it for them.”

Molly is lacrosse royalty. Not only is her older sister, junior Katie Pepper, a three-year varsity starter and an NCAA Division I commit to Dartmouth College. Their mother, Kim, also played at Dartmouth, and introduced her girls to lacrosse since they could walk and talk.

“She’s always been lights out, ever since the young days,” Katie said. “And we play together all the time. I knew she just needed a little bit of a confidence boost from the beginning of the season. And then she became so confident in her skills and just took it from there.”

SHP didn’t need much from its freshman in the way of scoring this season. The Gators have plenty of attacking weapons, highlighted by sophomore Kat Dykes, who totaled 10 goals through the Gators’ two regular-season games with St. Ignatius. SHP came out on the short end of both of those matchups — a 14-13 overtime loss at home, followed by a 6-5 loss in a defensive battle in San Francisco — though yellow cards loomed large in each of them.

What the Gators learned in their second loss to St. Ignatius, however, was their defense could keep them in games. SHP played a man down for most of the May 2 regular-season finale against the Wildcats, and was two players down in the late going.

“We got four yellow cards halfway through the second quarter, so we were a man down for the rest of the game,” Katie said. “And then at the beginning of the fourth quarter, we got another yellow card, so we were two men down. And our defense stopped them. We were all playing big, playing together. It was the best defense I’ve ever seen. And I think our energy was there. We didn’t let the yellow cards hold us back. We just kept going and pushed through the consequences we were facing.”

So, this time around, SHP shook up its game plan, anticipating the Wildcats would be keying on Dykes.

“We knew that,” SHP head coach Steph Sanders said. “And we believe in every single one of our attackers, and it showed. ‘Ok, you’re going to take them out of the game? All right, we’re going to try these girls.’ So, they stepped up. And that’s a hard thing to do, when you have so many awesome leaders in front of you. But they did it, and they had a great day.”

SHP had an additional problem to solve in compensating for the loss of key defender Maggie Goldstein, who missed the last three weeks of the season due to an ankle fracture of the fifth metatarsal. So, Sanders opted to forgo relying on the typical three middies, utilizing just two, with Molly Pepper shifting from middie to attacker.

The talk heading into Saturday’s season finale, though, had more to do with discipline than the game plan. One of the main talking points — no yellow cards.

“Everyone needs to know how to play every position on the field,” Katie said. “So, we were working on fundamentals, clean, and no yellow cards. And we only got a few today, which was very helpful.”

And with the Wildcats largely focused on defending Dykes, it was Molly Pepper who emerged from the fray.

“I just think we have a bunch of insane players on our team, and they were definitely going to be guarded,” Molly said. “So, me being the freshman, I would take it where I wasn’t guarded. And, yeah, it wasn’t a game plan, but I knew I needed to make those goals in the key moments.”

Of course, she didn’t do it alone. Stanford commit Olivia Abbott totaled four assists, and Dykes added two goals and three assists. The Gators defense also dazzled, using its “razor” technique of quickly subbing defensive bulwarks when the team would draw back for extended stands against a St. Ignatius team that averaged 13.2 goals per game this season.

Perhaps the most intriguing note, though, is SHP will graduate just one senior starter this year. That means the SHP-St. Ignatius rivalry is likely going to carry right over to next year. And, yes, both Pepper sisters are slated to return as well.

“The future’s bright,” Sanders said. “It’s a great team, great leadership. They all play such an important role on the team, and they know that, and they feel loved. Every day is a joy to be with them.”