The St. Anthony’s girls lacrosse team opened the year as the perceived best team in the nation.

It left no doubt throughout the spring season that it was worthy of that status. And it wasn’t about to jeopardize that in the final game of the season.

St. Anthony’s defeated St. Dominic, 16-2, in the CHSAA Class AA championship on Saturday night at Adelphi. The victory finalized the second straight undefeated season for the No. 1 nationally-ranked Friars, who went 17-0 to earn their sixth straight CHSAA Class AA title and all but guaranteed themselves the top spot in the final high school girls lacrosse rankings.

“It’s incredibly special,” senior midfielder Molly Hiney said. “To stay No. 1 in the nation the entire season and go undefeated two years in a row is unlike anything anyone else has ever done. We’re so lucky to have the opportunity to play with each other every day and to finish the job.”

St. Anthony’s, which led 10-0 at halftime, scored 14 unanswered goals. Emma Speed, Katherine Rathjen and Hiney each had three goals and an assist for the Friars, who had nine different goal scorers.

“You see the amount of hard work and dedication we put into it and it really came into play in this game and all season,” said senior defender Julia May O’Connor, who had a goal. “It made us No. 1 in the nation.”

Lilly DeNatale scored twice for St. Dominic (11-5), which had only three seniors on its 22-player roster and was playing in its first CHSAA AA championship game in program history.

The Friars embraced the challenge all spring of being the top-ranked team in the country. And even more than proving it to others, they wanted to show themselves that they were worthy.

“Not only do we have a lot of outside pressure, we also put a lot of pressure on ourselves to prove ourselves every day,” Rathjen said. “All we wanted was to do this and get better and better every single day, every single practice, every single game. We take everything really seriously.”

“There’s certainly a lot of moving parts and there’s certainly been a magic to this team and this program and we run with that,” said coach Darcy Messina, who is 36-0 in her two seasons as Friars head coach. “We’re fueled by that, and I think that speaks for itself. We have a lot of things that go for us, but the harder we work, the luckier we get.”

Messina, a former player at St. Anthony’s, soaked in seeing her team capture another title.

“It’s certainly a dynasty,” Messina said. It’s very special here. As a [graduate] of St. Anthony’s, it really does take a village and tradition never graduates. And we’re really lucky that we’re able to implement those same values every year.”