TOWN AND COUNTRY – The top two draw control artists in the St. Louis area stood face-to-face and stick-to stick.
With the state championship game tied midway through the fourth quarter, Cor Jesu senior Abby Finnegan departed her normal position on the perimeter of the circle and squared off in the center of the field with Eureka draw specialist Emily Emerson.
“I tried not to let her win it straight to herself,” Finnegan said. “I wanted to mess it up and make it a 50-50 ball.”
Finnegan and senior Cate Figge combined for six goals and controlled the draw circle in the final minutes to lead Cor Jesu to a thrilling 13-10 victory over Eureka to capture the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association state championship Saturday at Missouri Baptist University.
Cor Jesu (16-5), which entered the 2025 MSLA playoffs as the No. 5 seed, defeated the No. 4, the No. 1 and the No. 3 seeds in succession to earn its first state title in lacrosse since 2016.
The Chargers overcame an early, three-goal deficit to take a 10-8 lead into the fourth quarter, but Emerson and her self-draw ability put Eureka back in the driver’s seat.
Emerson, who earned 15 draw controls in the Wildcats’ semifinal victory over MICDS, flipped the ball skyward, caught it and set up a goal by Alyssa Olivio to open the fourth quarter. She repeated the feat on the next draw, and Amelia Craig tied the game at 10, prompting a Cor Jesu timeout.
In a loss to Eureka on May 3, Emerson’s self-draw capabilities proved to be the difference in the game.
“Last time we played Eureka, we couldn’t touch it. (Emerson) took it every single time,” Cor Jesu coach Andrew Shipp said. “Friday’s practice was, ‘Let’s play 6’s, have a little fun and work on how we might be able to stop that from happening again.’”
Cor Jesu freshman Paige Farris stood strong against Emerson early, but Emerson found her rhythm in the second half. The secret weapon for Cor Jesu became Finnegan, whose area-leading 155 draw controls came mostly while stationed on the perimeter of the circle.
In the final minutes Saturday, she stood in the center, locking sticks with Emerson.
“In our timeout we talked about how we really needed to get the draw and get down on offense,” said Finnegan, a Rockhurst commit.
Figge added, “We said, ‘Just take it one minute at a time, keep the energy up and don’t get in our heads. Go hard and give it our all.’”
Finnegan muddied up the draw, Figge collected the ground ball and sophomore Amanda Missey scored the go-ahead goal 44 seconds after the timeout. A Finnegan draw control set up a free position goal by Figge one minute later, and Farris deposited a bouncing shot into the cage on the following possession to give the Chargers a three-goal advantage with 4:50 remaining.
“We just couldn’t get the ball,” Eureka coach Melissa Menchella said. “We had a great draw game against MICDS (in the semifinal) and clearly (Cor Jesu) game-planned for that. They fought hard to get the ball and were able to come out with it.”
Eureka (16-3), which rallied from a seven-goal deficit to defeat MICDS in the semifinal two days earlier, rode that momentum early the championship game. Goals by seniors Katie Criswell and Ruby Copeland, along with a pair by sophomore Addy Hays staked the Wildcats to a 4-1 lead after one quarter.
But Figge scored early in the second, and a pair of Finnegan goals 54 seconds apart knotted the game at 4.
“What’s special about this team is that there is no quit,” Finnegan said. “We were down early against (John) Burroughs (in the semifinal) and came back. We’re not going to quit until the last whistle.”
The comeback was made possible by outstanding goalkeeping from junior Maggie Bruno, who split time throughout the season with freshman sensation Charlie Cates but played the entire 48 minutes on Saturday.
Bruno, who draws a goldfish on the inside of her left arm and writes the words, “Be a Goldfish” on her cleats before every game, forgot about a shaky first quarter and made several clutch saves during the Cor Jesu comeback.
“I look down and I have a reminder to stay resilient,” Bruno said.
That shaky first quarter, however, had the Cor Jesu coaching staff talking about Bruno.
“We said we’re just going to let (Bruno) run with it, but when it was 4-1, we were having the conversation with our coaches that maybe we need to throw Charlie in the second half if this starts getting away from us,” Shipp said. “But Maggie turned it on. She stayed high and stopped biting on that low shot. She played outstanding.”
Bruno spent the halftime intermission saving shots from Figge, then opened the third quarter with two spectacular saves during the first Eureka possession. A stellar save on a shot from Olivio and denial of Copeland’s free position attempt helped Cor Jesu build a 9-6 lead midway through the third quarter.
“I had a similar performance against John Burroughs where they were able to score quite a few early on our defense, but we’re able to talk with one another, take accountability for our mistakes and say, ‘Flush it, Be a goldfish. Be ready for the next one,” said Bruno, who was credited with eight saves.
Goals by Copeland and Craig sliced the Eureka deficit to 9-8 before Figge earned a free position opportunity with two seconds remaining in the third quarter.
“That was really fun. I saw that there were two seconds, but I set the ball down, took a breath and said, ‘Go, have fun. If it goes in, it goes in,’” Figge said.
It went in, but the Cor Jesu fun came crashing to a halt to start the fourth. Emerson played catch with herself in the draw circle, Olivio and Craig scored goals and the game entered its final stages tied at 10.
But Finnegan and Figge controlled the center of the field for the remainder of the game and helped Cor Jesu lift a championship trophy in the same area of Spartans’ Field a few minutes later.
“The circle play became super important, and we did a great job off the draw,” Shipp said.
It was a remarkable, fourth consecutive trip to the state title game for Eureka, the 2024 state champion. Despite the departure of several impactful players from last year’s team, the Wildcats earned the right to play the final game of the MSLA season once again.
“I’m really proud of them,” Menchella said. “We didn’t know if we could get back here this year. We had a lot of question marks we had to figure out and girls filled some big shoes. To have the chance to fight for another state championship is always an honor.”
And Cor Jesu continued a remarkable string of athletic success of its own, having reached the final four in softball this fall, basketball this winter and claiming a lacrosse state title this spring, with the defending state champion Chargers’ soccer team still playing in the Class 4 playoffs.
“One of our core values at Cor Jesu is care and community, and that has really shown through our sports teams,” said senior Madi Beuligmann, who also plays field hockey and basketball. “We become best friends. We’re always there for each other and that helps us succeed.”
Photo gallery of this game: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Girls-Lacrosse-2023-24/Girls-Lacrosse-2025/Cor-Jesu-vs-Eureka-MSLA-Championship
