SJV Wins Non-Public A Title, Finishes 30-0 in One of the State's Greatest Seasons

Thirty wins. Zero losses. A state championship to close it out. St. John Vianney is done for the season and they went out the only way a team like this could, with a 10-run mercy rule victory over Mount St. Dominic on Wednesday evening at Ivy Hill Park. The Lancers are your 2026 Non-Public A state champions, and they finished the season without a blemish on their record.

Madison McDougall was everything she has been all year. The Gatorade Player of the Year finalist, who finished the season with 312 strikeouts and 17 home runs at the plate, went six innings and struck out 10 in a two-hit shutout. She also launched a home run at the plate and finished 2-for-2 with an RBI for good measure. Mia Favato went 4-for-4. Olivia Haslacher went 3-for-4. Gabby Gonzalez drove in four. SJV put up 15 hits against one of the better pitchers in the Non-Public ranks and made it look routine.

The Lancers jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first and kept adding throughout the afternoon. By the end of the fourth they led 8–0 and were on the verge of ending it early. Mount St. Dominic's Ava Kelshaw got out of a fifth inning jam with a strikeout to keep playing, but Seton Hall came right back in the sixth. Peyton McDougall, Madison's freshman sister, delivered an RBI single to make it 9–0, and then Brynn Utter stepped up and walked it off to trigger the mercy rule. The celebration was instant. Thirty and zero.

After the game, McDougall spoke on what it meant to go out on top. "We work our butts off here, and it just feels amazing to go out with a bang," she said. On her approach to the final, she kept it simple. "I just wanted to take it player by player, inning by inning. With my defense backing me up and them hitting behind me, I was confident we were gonna come out and win this game."

The family angle made Wednesday even more meaningful. McDougall played all four years of her high school career with her mother coaching from the other side of the fence, and this season her freshman sister Peyton joined the roster. "The four years at SJV that I spent with my mom all four years, and then even my freshman sister coming in this year, it was just overall a great experience and I wouldn't change anything about it," she said.

When asked what legacy she wants to leave at St. John Vianney, the answer said everything about the kind of player and person she is. "I don't want to be known by anybody but a nice person."

312 strikeouts. 17 home runs. A perfect record. A state title. Madison McDougall's legacy at St. John Vianney is secure, and so is this program's place in the conversation about the greatest seasons in New Jersey softball history. Thirty and zero. Nobody beat them. Nobody came close.