ADAMS TWP — Shannon Doyle picked up a crosse in the seventh grade and was immediately hooked.

A soccer player at heart up until that point, she had a change of one.

Lacrosse — this strange, new sport with the crazy rules — became her passion.

“Up until the seventh grade, I was a soccer kid. Then I started playing lacrosse and I fell in love with it,” Doyle said. “In lacrosse as a midfielder, it’s a position that has so many opportunities on both sides of the ball.”

Doyle liked to be in the middle of everything, so lacrosse struck a chord with her.

And, as it turned out, the Mars senior developed into a major star in the sport.

In a 13-2 win over Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic Wednesday afternoon, Doyle scored her 200th career goal for the Planets.

She now has 204 in her career.

It is a major milestone in the sport and Doyle was able to accomplish the feat in just three years.

Mars didn’t have a lacrosse program when she was a freshman.

“I think it says a lot about the program and my teammates and less about me as a personal accomplishment,” Doyle said. “All these goals have a lot to do with my teammates. A lot of those goals wouldn’t have come without them. It starts with the defenders, who get the short end of the stick a lot of times.”

Doyle has a soft spot for defensive players. She played predominantly on that end for the Mars girls soccer team for four years and enjoyed tremendous success.

As a middie for 11-2 Mars this year, she is a prolific scorer with 64 goals.

Doyle will play lacrosse next year at Division I Central Michigan University.

She remembers that first season of lacrosse at Mars and has seen how far she, her teammates and the program have come.

“I think that first year, we were all really excited and kind of nervous,” Doyle said. “We were just hoping to hold our own against some of the very established programs we were going up against. In that beginning year, whoever got the ball just ran down the field and tried to score. Now, there are some specific things that we try to do and we’re disappointed if we don’t execute.”

Doyle was teammates in that first year with Bella Alampi, who just recently scored her 200th career goal with Oakland Catholic.

Alampi spent just one year at Mars and scored 97 goals during her sophomore year.

Mars has a good first season with Doyle and Alampi as anchors.

“I think that’s what gave everyone confidence,” Doyle said. “We had some initial success.”

Now the program has blossomed as the inaugural group is getting set to cycle out of the program.

Doyle said it was important to the current seniors to leave a lasting legacy.

“I think that was a huge part of it,” Doyle said. “We have freshman in their first year, the first real group from the Mars youth program, who have told us, ‘We’ve been waiting to play with you guys.’”

Mars has four games left before the WPIAL playoffs begin.

The Planets have lofty goals.

“I think overall, obviously, one of our goals is to get to the WPIAL finals,” Doyle said. “We had good runs the last two years but fell short.”

Lacrosse in Mars is booming. The boys team is 14-1 and has scored 249 goals and given up just 76. The girls also have an impressive goal differential.

“It’s a relatively new sport and there’s so much energy and interest in both programs,” Doyle said. “It’s awesome.”