ADAMS TWP — Bella Alampi recruited the most challenging goalie she could find to help her improve her lacrosse skills.

Her mother, Maria.

“I would ask her to play a little goalie,” Alampi said, laughing. “I’d say, ‘C’mon, Mom, put on the pads. Play a little defense. Check me.’”

Alampi peppered the net with shot after shot as frequently as she could with one thought in mind: To be the most prolific player she could be.

It appears the Oakland Catholic senior midfielder has accomplished that mission.

In a 16-10 loss to Chartiers Valley Thursday, Alampi reached a milestone few high school lacrosse players ever do when she scored her 200th career goal.

The Adams Township resident now has 201 goals to her credit — 97 came in her one season at Mars as a sophomore.

“It just means a lot to me,” Alampi said. “It shows all the hard work I put in meant something. That all those shots — just shooting at a net for hours and hours — paid off.”

Alampi’s lacrosse journey has been a winding one, taking her from Oakland Catholic to Mars and back to Oakland Catholic again.

Her father, Joe, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer, before her sophomore year. Alampi chose to attend Mars and play lacrosse on the Planets’ inaugural team so she could stay closer to home and to her family.

Her father recently underwent a successful stem cell transplant and is no longer undergoing chemotherapy treatments. While he will never be in remission, Alampi said he has reached a healthy plateau in his recovery and is doing extremely well.

“He’s a fighter,” Alampi said. “I learned a lot of life skills from my dad. He’s definitely one of my role models and so is my mom. They are both strong people.”

Alampi took some of that family strength with her back to Oakland Catholic last season.

She dived back into the rigors of Division I lacrosse after spending the season in Division II at Mars.

Despite the tougher competition, Alampi still scored 58 goals as a junior.

“Division I is much tougher,” Alampi said. “There are teams with players who are going to play Division I college. It’s a little different. It’s closer to the level I’ll be playing at next year (at Lafayette College).”

Alampi, though, cherished her lone season with the Planets.

One of the reasons she attended Oakland Catholic at the start of high school was because the Eagles had a lacrosse program and Mars did not.

She started as a freshman at Oakland Catholic and then joined Mars as a team captain in her second year.

“I was lucky they started lacrosse the year I went back,” Alampi said. “Our team was so young, but we played so hard. I really owe a lot to Mars and to (coach) Lindsay Flavion. There are things I learned from her I still use every day.”

In a way, Alampi is a coach this season for Oakland Catholic.

The Eagles (1-2) are extremely young and coach Ashley White is also relatively inexperienced.

Alampi has run some practices, implementing drills to help the team improve in their areas of weakness.

She has also designed plays in an attempt to generate more offense.

“I think it makes me a better player,” Alampi said. “I like coaching. I really love my team and to see what they are doing through their eyes helped me focus on what I’m doing on the field.”

Alampi has scored 15 goals this season and is closing in on the Oakland Catholic career scoring mark.

But the going has been more difficult this season as Alampi is one of the few true scoring threats on the Eagles’ roster.

“It’s a little harder figuring out how to get free on my own,” Alampi said. “I love my team to death. We’ll be sitting around talking and a story will come up from the year I was at Mars. Someone will say, ‘Bella, do you remember that?’ And I’ll say, ‘No, that happened the year I wasn’t here.’ And they’ll insist I was. Quite honestly it was like I never left.”