SHP sweeps CCS Division I lacrosse finals

“This was the most exhilarating day for me,” Pepper said. “This team’s my favorite people in the world, and I just wanted to do it for the seniors, and the rest of the people on the team. And I had some opportunities, so I decided to take them for my team.”

Pepper capped a big weekend for SHP, as the Gentleman Gators also claimed a CCS championship, prevailing in the Division I finals Friday night. With an identical seeding to the girls, the No. 2 SHP boys held on for an 8-7 win over No. 1 St. Ignatius.

None of the players from either of SHP’s youthful rosters were at the school the last time the Gators took home CCS titles, with the boys and girls claiming championships in 2021.

Since then, the SHP girls had gone 2-6 in head-to-head play with St. Ignatius, including a pair of one-point losses in the regular season. Saturday’s win marks the Lady Gators’ first ever in CCS postseason play over the Wildcats.

“It’s always a privilege to play S.I.,” SHP junior Olivia Abbott said, “and they’re such a talented team. They always give us the best competition possible. But today it was our time, and we really made the most of it.”

While Pepper stole the show, the SHP defense set the tone.

St. Ignatius (17-5) won the opening faceoff and held the first possession for two minutes, 15 seconds, with the Gators being whistled for three penalties, one resulting in a free position penalty shot. St. Ignatius didn’t produce a single shot on goal during the possession, and SHP used the stop to flip the field and score off a free position with a quick power flip by sophomore Kat Dykes.

The Gators used three more clutch defensive stops — junior goalkeeper Ella Caplice saved the ensuing penalty shot; then Abbott came up with steal after another long Wildcats possession; and senior Ellie Shen earned another steal at midfield — to set up Pepper for her first goal, with Abbott taking a forward pass from Shen to feed Pepper in traffic to score it with eight seconds remaining in the first quarter, staking the Gators to a 2-0 lead.

“It’s so hard to keep playing and not be able to score,” SHP head coach Steph Sanders said. “And our defense, and Ella in the goal, they completely shut them down. And those are really good attackers. So, that is incredible that they were able to do that.”

SHP extended the lead to 3-0 less than two minutes into the second quarter on Pepper’s second goal on a daring assist pass from junior Skyler Schramm right in front of the cage. But the Wildcats answered quickly back-to-back with scores from senior Chase Dunn and junior Sophie Ghosh to close it to 3-2.

It’s as close as the Wildcats would get, after SHP closed the first half with two unanswered goals from junior Lily Selcher and Pepper. Then Pepper sparked the Gators with two quick goals to start the second half, upping the lead to 7-2.

“[Pepper] knew what she needed to do,” Sanders said. “She’s a freshman. She knew that other players were going to get a tough matchup. And she knew she needed to step up. And we had hoped that she would do that, and she did it.”

Ghosh and the Wildcats kept up the pressure as the junior scored a team-high four goals, and St. Ignatius shuffled senior Millie Bartlett into the attack for a score with 39 seconds to play in the third quarter to close it to 9-7.

St. Ignatius slowed the pace for a two-and-a-half minute possession to start the fourth, but ultimately turned it over on an offensive foul. SHP took control, and maintained possession thanks to an alert play by Schramm on a ground ball near the end line. Dykes had a crisp shot miss, leaving the ball rolling toward the end line, but Schramm outran a St. Ignatius pursuer to the spot and was ruled closer to the ball as it crossed out of bounds to preserve the possession. SHP capitalized as Schramm earned the assist with a backdoor pass to Pepper, giving the Gators a 10-7 advantage.

Midway through the fourth, however, the Wildcats got their second wind when Bartlett marked Pepper one-on-one with a stick check to force a steal.

“I knew me defense would get it back for me,” Pepper said. “But I felt very bad in that situation. And then once we got it back, I knew we could all get it back together.”

St. Ignatius immediately called a timeout, and used it to set up junior Kaija Walcott on a C-cut on an assist pass from senior KK O’Keeffe to make it 10-8 with 4:44 to play.

SHP’s defense closed out the win, though. Sophomore defenseman Cate Hansen and junior midfielder Katie Pepper came up with a big stop on a charging attempt, collapsing on the Wildcats attacker to force it loose for SHP freshman Emma Dikes to pick up the ground ball. St. Ignatius regained possession, but Hansen stood her ground on a curl pass, forcing a ground ball with Selcher scooping it up in front of the cage with less than a minute to go.

Dykes — SHP’s goal leader this season — finished with two goals for the Gators, while Abbott totaled four assists.

Molly Pepper hadn’t scored more than two goals in a game previous to Saturday, but has been a starter for most of the year. That two-goal performance came May 2 in SHP’s regular-season finale, a 6-5 loss at St. Ignatius, when four yellow cards against the Gators in the first half left them playing a man down from midway through the second quarter. Another yellow-card ejection in the fourth left them two players down.

Dykes scored a hat trick in that loss, and previously totaled seven goals, April 2, in the Gators’ 14-13 overtime loss to St. Ignatius. With SHP knowing the Wildcats would be keying on Dykes in the CCS finals, it allowed Molly Pepper to emerge for a double hat trick.

“It wasn’t necessarily a plan,” said Katie Pepper, Molly’s older sister. “We have so many people that can push the offense. And, her being a freshman, I’m assuming they didn’t think of her as one of the top threats. I mean, we have so many insane DI commits, and upperclassmen. So, I think she kind of snuck through the cracks and she stepped it up, which, I’m super proud of her.”

Katie Pepper, who will be headed to Dartmouth University in 2026-27, is one of SHP’s three NCAA Division I commits. Abbott is committed to play at Stanford University, Selcher is committed to Duke University, and Shen is committed to the Division III program at Claremont McKenna College.

SHP has appeared in each of the five CCS girls’ lacrosse finals since the sport was officially recognized by the section. The Gators won the first CCS tournament in 2021 under head coach Wendy Kridel, who was in attendance Saturday along with sideline. Sanders took over the program this season.

“It’s everything,” Sanders said of the win. “They worked so hard. I mean, it was hard. We lost twice (to St. Ignatius this season). That’s a really big blow to take. And then to do this today, and put all the pieces together and follow the game plan, it’s everything. They’re amazing. They deserve every bit of it.”

Barnds scores four goals for SHP boys

While the SHP girls enjoyed a postgame celebration with a boombox queued up to blast “We Are the Champions,” the SHP boys’ celebration Friday night was a bit more crowded.

“It was a little more exciting,” SHP junior John Barnds said. “The crowd actually rushed onto the field for us. But I guess they’re not letting that happen this time.”

Part of the reason SHP students weren’t allowed to rush the field Saturday was because the girls’ championship game was paused in the first half for a referee’s warning when the student section got a bit too rowdy. The silver lining? There were a lot of Gators fans in attendance for a Saturday afternoon event, including the entire SHP boys’ lacrosse team.

It turned into quite the coronation, as the No. 2-seed SHP boys (17-7) opened championship weekend with an 8-7 win over No. 1 St. Ignatius (21-4) Friday night at Carlmont. Barnds got the Gators on the board on their first possession with a step down off the side, and SHP went on to lead wire to wire.

Barnds led the Gators with four goals, sophomore attacker Max Wong added two goals for SHP, and junior attacker Chris Smithers and junior long stick middie Kieran Armstrong each scored one.

Like the girls’ team, the SHP boys had appeared in all five CCS finals since 2021. All five finals have featured SHP against St. Ignatius, with the Gators falling the past three years.

“This is the boys’ team first time winning since 2021 ... so, it’s really just like a huge standing point,” Barnds said. “I don’t think we’re going to be as afraid of S.I. anymore. We’re not going to just see them as some godly team or something. Now, we know that they’re beatable, and it’s going to be a lot better.”