LEETSDALE — The only thing that seemed to be able to stop the Mars girls lacrosse team in the second half was time.

The Planets scored six of the last eight goals over the final 14 minutes of the match, but the furious rally fell short in a 16-11 loss to Oakland Catholic in the WPIAL 2A playoffs Wednesday night at Quaker Valley High School.

“I'm going to get emotional,” said first-year Mars head girls lacrosse coach Cara DuMont. “I couldn't be prouder of my team. They 100 percent never give up. It doesn't matter what the score is, they keep fighting. They're 100 percent a second-half team. I believe in them so they believe in themselves. They fought to the final buzzer.”

Unfortunately for Mars (11-8), a slow start doomed the Planets.

Oakland Catholic roared out to a 4-0 lead less than four minutes into the match. Natalie Cyterski scored twice and assisted on the other two goals in the flurry.

Cyterski finished with six goals to lead the Eagles.

Mars, though, answered with two goals of its own off the sticks of Paige Seles and Steph Cimini.

That was as close as the Planets would come, however.

Oakland Catholic stretched its lead to 8-3 at the half and led 14-5 less than 10 minutes into the second half before Mars launched its comeback attempt.

Mars scored four goals in the final five minutes from five different players to close the gap.

Time just ran out.

“That is a great team, but I think we're neck and neck with them,” DuMont said. “We just made some small mistakes. Unfortunately, those small mistakes were a factor.

“That second half,” DuMont said, “that was the best lacrosse we've played all season.”

Mars has an extremely young team. Only three of the starters were seniors.

“I'm a little bit sad, but not sad we got beat,” DuMont said. “They worked so hard all season.”

Seles, only a sophomore, scored six goals to lead the Planets.

“We count on her a lot,” DuMont said. “She's such a strong person and she can really take the heat. Whenever we do say, 'Paige, we need you to go out there and get a goal,' she goes out there and gets a goal for us. Every single time.”

DuMont served as an assistant coach under Lindsay Flavion for the last two years. Flavion stayed on as an assistant this year.

DuMont, who played in high school for North Allegheny until she graduated in 2010, said she's already eager to get back to work.

“I just can't wait to get started on next season,” DuMont said. “We proved a lot of people wrong this year. With what we lost, I don't think a lot of people thought we'd be where we were.

“It was team first, self second,” DuMont said. “That's how we had to roll with it this year. We have such young, young people. We had probably seven people who had never touched a stick before and they were playing and starting varsity. I think that says a whole bunch about the work ethic of everybody.”