Staff photo / Dan Hiner Cardinal Mooney’s Lainey Hunt (22) battles for possession of a loose ball with Canfield’s Simardeep Kaur during the third quarter of Tuesday’s game at Cardinal Mooney High School.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Canfield girls lacrosse team focused on teamwork entering the 2025 season, and it was on full display at Cardinal Mooney High School on Tuesday evening.

Canfield scored in bunches, getting contributions from several players, as it beat Mooney 13-4.

“You can look cool, but we win as a team, lose as a team, we pass as a team, and if one girl drops the ball, that affects all of us,” Canfield head coach Megan Tyson said. “That’s something they’ve really, really grown into the past couple games.”

Radhika Uppal got the ball near the net and scored with 8:59 to play in the first quarter. But Mooney responded 26 seconds later with a goal from Natalie Blasko.

Simardeep Kaur then put Canfield (5-2) back in front with 8:59 left in the second quarter. She cut through the center of the Mooney defense for a one-on-one with the goalie, scoring low and giving Canfield a lead it never relinquished. Jenna Alexander pushed the lead to 3-1 with 6:20 remaining in the half after getting a short assist from Kaur.

The Canfield lead grew to 4-1 just 24 seconds later when Olivia Hash found the back of the net, forcing a Cardinal Mooney timeout. But the extra break didn’t help as Hash added her second goal after intercepting a pass and breaking away from the Mooney defense with 5:11 left in the second.

Blasko got one back for Mooney (0-4) less than a minute later when she cut right and scored on a shot that went into the top-right corner.

Uppal scored her second goal after a foul with just over two minutes to play in the second. Alexander recorded her second score after Kayleigh Carney found her in the middle of the Mooney defense. Alexander drove to the net and shot low, giving Canfield a 7-2 lead just before halftime.

“We’re really young. We’re very inexperienced,” Cardinal Mooney head coach Toni Chahine said. “Fourteen out of 22 girls are freshmen and sophomores on this team. This is a big game for them, a big atmosphere, a big environment. I have to tell them to stay level-headed. It’s there in the works, we just couldn’t finish.”

Brooke Campbell cut the deficit to 7-3 less than two minutes into the second half. She fought through contact and scored while getting knocked to the ground, giving Mooney a little life.

But Canfield countered and scored, and Karley Gerst got her first after a foul with 5:51 left in the third to extend the lead to 9-3.

Frankie Cassese cut the Canfield lead to 9-4 following a foul just over a minute later.

Carney got on the board again midway through the fourth, and Gerst added her second shortly after to push the lead to 11-4. The visiting Cardinals added a couple more goals in the closing minutes to cap the victory.

Cardinal Mooney’s Liviah Hunt finished with six saves, and Canfield goalie Lainie Modarelli stopped eight shots to keep Mooney from gaining any offensive momentum.

“(Modarelli) is a beast in the net, for sure,” Tyson said.

Canfield beat rival Poland in the first round of the playoffs last season before falling to Uniontown Lake in the second round. The Cardinals finished 2024 with a 9-9 record.

But now, they’re already halfway to their win total from last spring after picking up their fifth win of the year against Mooney.

Tyson tells her girls to “have the memory of a goldfish.” There will be mistakes, but she wants her players to learn and grow over the course of the year.

But when a team emphasises teamwork, like Canfield, it allows the other players to pick each other up and adjust.

“Assists are just as important as goals or saves,” Tyson said. “We can’t have a goalie that stops 100% if you can’t have girls that can’t score, and vice versa. If you have girls that can’t work with each other, it affects everyone.”