'Clean, good, pretty lacrosse': Pensacola Catholic girls lacrosse three-peats as district champs

The Pensacola Catholic girls lacrosse team couldn’t stop cheering and celebrating.

The Crusaders had every right to. They had just beaten South Walton, 14-1, on Wednesday in the District 1-1A championship game for their third consecutive district crown.

An assistant coach had the players run together in a line, holding hands, and sprint toward the stands at Goreki-LeBeau Stadium, allowing friends, family and the Pensacola Catholic faithful to celebrate with them.

Head coach Chloe Weinmann hung back with the district trophy, opting to take a photo with her son, Caleb. They’ve taken a similar photo before. But the magnitude of this type of game, this accomplishment, isn’t lost on him.

And it’s surely not lost on Weinmann.

“He’s been asking me for the last couple weeks, ‘When is that championship game? When can we dump the water on you?’” said Weinmann, who had already been drenched by her players from the giant water cooler. “He comes to every finals game, it’s something he looks forward to. The girls are like his family. It’s so special to share it with him, because he plays lacrosse for the Knights. He loves the game. He’s grown with this team. …

“I’m a little cold, but it’s worth it.”

Pensacola Catholic left little to no doubt that it would “three-peat” as district champions. The Crusaders scored 14 unanswered goals throughout the game, enforcing a running clock late in the second frame. South Walton spoiled the shutout with a little more than six minutes left in the contest.

But by that point, the damage had been done. It took a few minutes for the Crusaders to get on the scoreboard. Once Julia Frosch opened the scoring with a free-position shot from the 8-meter arc right in front of the South Walton goaltender, Pensacola Catholic’s prolific offense woke up.

That shot hit the back of the net with 7 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first quarter. Within a little more than three minutes – three minutes and three seconds, to be exact – Pensacola Catholic scored five more goals to take the wind out of South Walton’s sails.

Taking an 11-0 lead at halftime, the game had been sealed. The Crusaders scored three more times in the second half, surrendering just the one goal, to take home yet another trophy.

“We have the biggest district in all of Florida with nine teams. That’s a really tough feat, to go undefeated in your district, to come into a district final like this, and come out with a result like this,” Weinmann said. “The girls went out and played clean, good, pretty lacrosse. It was just a really good testament to our program and how far we’ve come over the last few years.”

“This cements our position as probably the best team in the area,” Frosch said with a smile. “Obviously, we want to win next year, too, but this really builds our program. … This just shows how much we’ve grown and how much our intensity has increased.”

Pensacola Catholic (19-2), with easily its best record in program history, earns an automatic bid into the regional tournament, which begins on Tuesday for Class 1A. Entering the district tournament, the Crusaders were ranked third in Region 1-1A, trailing Ponte Vedra and Episcopal School of Jacksonville.

“It feels great to go to regionals one last time,” goalie Rosie Langston said.

If the rankings hold, that means the Crusaders would host a region quarterfinal game – at this point, it would be Bolles. The FHSAA will have a selection show on Friday to determine the final seedings for the region tournament.

“The last month of practice has been about getting to these regional games, because we’ve gotten beaten in the semifinals the last two years,” Weinmann said. “We need to prove ourselves, that we’re good enough to get into the final.”

“Our confidence level is definitely high. We have to keep our intensity up. We can’t hold back,” Frosch said. “It’s either make it or break it.”

Tiring pressure, but worth it

The way the Crusaders play defense can sometimes be tiring. Weinmann knows that. But it comes with a strong payoff.

Pensacola Catholic, whenever South Walton gained possession in the game, was immediately double- or triple-teaming the Seahawks. Most of the time, South Walton never entered the Crusaders' defensive third before coughing up the ball, putting Pensacola Catholic back on the attack.

And the for the moments where South Walton found itself in scoring range, the Crusaders, again, forced turnovers and kept the Seahawks to the outside.

"“That’s just a huge part of our gameplay to play a very high pressure and force the other team to make errors. We don’t want to make our own errors, but we want to force opponents to make an error by getting stuck essentially," Weinmann said. "I tell them to do the work in the midfield so that we don't have to play as much defense in our defensive third."

In the limited chances South Walton had, Langston was a "brick wall," Weinmann noted. It took until the second quarter for Langston to have to record a save, which was a free-position shot from the 8-meter arc.

Every free position shot that South Walton had either was stopped by Langston or trickled wide.

"I make sure I focus on the shooter. I tune everything else out," Langston said. "Nothing else is going on except the girl and the ball, and I’m right there with her.”

"Rosie stays composed," Weinmann said. "You never expect a goalie to save two (shots like that) in a row. But to save three in a row? That shows poise and how good of a goalie Rosie is.”

The biggest thing, for Langston, is staying focused even with limited action. Throughout the season, the Crusaders have allowed five goals or more just six time – and five of those times came against teams from the eastern half of Florida, like Bolles and Bishop Moore.

"Our defense is so much better than I could’ve ever imagined," Langston said. They truly help me out. ... I focus on making sure every single minute I’m locked in."

“From the type of season we’ve had, she’s gotten some practice to say, ‘OK, the ball can come down here at any moment even though I’ve just taken a bit of a break,'" Weinmann said.

Any time, any player

The Crusaders' prolific offense doesn't rely on just one or two players.

Heck, it doesn't rely on just one or two plays.

From any different angle, from multiple lanes to the goal, from any given player, the Crusaders can find the back of the net. And they've done it often, scoring more than 10 goals in all but one of their 21 games so far this season (the only time was in a 14-7 loss at Bishop Moore on April 5).

"We’re not playing run-and-gun lacrosse, going straight to the goal. We’re setting up plays. We’re getting girls moving," Weinmann said. "The girls are connecting passes and moving their defenders to be able to set something up."

Eight players recorded at least one goal for Pensacola Catholic on Wednesday, led by Frosch's three goals in the game. Ella Adams, Isabella Geri, Charlie Buckley and Becca Bradley all had multi-goal games as well.

Collier Brown, Lily Campus and Natalie Biggs rounded out the Crusaders' scoring.

"We can feed passes to each other and trust each other," Frosch said. "Some of the passes we find, anybody can catch them because we have incredible stick skills. We create goals and positive offensive sets off of that.”

Utilizing speed and some nifty moves, Pensacola Catholic also does a good job at dodging the defense, Weinmann said. That forces defenders to move around, creating wide open lanes.

"We’re all fast. Whenever we can dodge and find an opening, it just boosts everyone up," Frosch said. "We’re all great attackers."

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Catholic girls lacrosse beats South Walton to take district