By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Adding lacrosse to the list of state-sanctioned high school sports this spring couldn’t have come at a better time for Notre Dame Academy’s team. The Pandas have an 11-0 record and are ranked No. 5 among 37 teams in the state with two weeks left in the regular season.
“The path to the final four (in the state playoffs) is definitely there,” said coach Jimmy Marshall. “As long as we do the things that we’re capable of doing, I think that’s the path this team should go on.”
Notre Dame is one of four Northern Kentucky high schools with a girls lacrosse team this spring. The Pandas defeated Ryle, 13-1, and Cooper, 14-3, with a home match against Dixie Heights on Tuesday.
Those matches will decide seeding for the Region 5 playoffs. The two region finalists will play the winner and runner-up teams in Region 6 in one of four sectional playoff brackets. The sectional winners will advance to the final four of the state tournament to be held May 19 and 21 at Collins High School.
Coach Marshall likes his team’s chances of making it to the state final four. He has an experienced lineup led by senior midfielders Hannah Powers, Georgi Kirtley and Andrea Carothers. That talented trio scored 110 of the Pandas’ 160 goals in the first 11 matches.
“It all starts with our midfielders,” the coach said. “They are really what got the wheels rolling for us this year. They’re also outstanding defenders, so they’re involved in every aspect of the game.”
Powers leads the state in goals scored with 55 in 11 matches for a 5.0 average. She’s a four-year starter who grew up playing lacrosse in Louisville before her family moved to Northern Kentucky.
During the summer, she plays on travel teams and was recruited by Barton College in North Carolina that competes on the NCAA Division II level.
Kirtley had never played lacrosse until the spring of her sophomore year when she left the basketball team to pick up a new sport. This season, she has provided 32 goals and a team-high 20 assists for the Pandas.
Kirtley also joined a summer travel team and quickly developed the skills she needed to be recruited by Southern Connecticut University, another NCAA Division II program.
Other seniors in Notre Dame’s starting lineup include attacker Hannan Dusing, who set a team record with six assists in one match, and goalkeeper Grace Panko, who has a 5.7 goals-allowed average that’s among the best in the state.
“It’s a unique roster this year because we only have one sophomore and everyone else is in the 11th or 12th grade,” Marshall said. “The fact that it’s mostly upperclassmen, they’re very focused and mature.”
This is Marshall’s 11th season as Notre Dame’s lacrosse coach. He said the team’s highest single-season win total is 13 and he expects to surpass that this spring.
“If you’re a skilled team throwing and catching and can move the ball, you’re going to be better than the majority of teams in the state,” he said. “With it being a new sport, there’s not a lot of teams that do not well. And we do that very well.”
Ryle football standout announces college choice
Jacob Savage, a two-way starter on the Ryle football team that made it to the Class 6A state final last season, received scholarship offers from several Division I college trams and chose the one that finished 10th in the national rankings.
On Friday, Savage announced that we will attend Indiana University after his senior season at Ryle is completed this fall. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound junior was recruited as a linebacker and will join an Indiana team that made its debut in the College Football Playoffs last season.
Notre Dame defeated Indiana, 27-17, in the first round of the playoffs and the Hoosiers finished with an 11-2 record.
The other six colleges on Savage’s list of finalists were Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Louisville and Georgia Tech. The first four are in the Big 10 Conference along with Indiana.
Savage received those offers because he’s ranked among Kentucky’s top 10 college prospects overall and No. 2 among linebackers in the class of 2026, according to the 247Sports website.
He attained those rankings following an impressive junior season for Ryle. He ended up leading the Raiders’ defense in tackles (141) and the offense in rushing (1,085 yards) and scoring (158 points).
Five girls, one boy on Ky. Junior All-Stars rosters
Five girls basketball players from Northern Kentucky were named to the Kentucky Junior All Stars team that will play two games against the Indiana Junior All Stars this summer.
The Kentucky roster includes Ryle guard Jaelyn Jones, Cooper guard Addyson Brissey, Notre Dame guard Emma Holtzapfel, Simon Kenton post player Haylie Webb and Campbell County forward Isabella Jayasuriya.
Last season, Jones was the third leading scorer in Northern Kentucky girls basketball with an 18.2 average. In the final statewide statistics, Jones was No. 4 in free throw shooting percentage (86.6) and Holtzapfel was No. 7 in 3-point goals per game (3.0).
The only local player on the Kentucky Junior All Stars boys roster is Newport forward James Turner, who averaged 14.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while shooting 54.5 percent from the field last season.