As sophomores, they helped Cathedral High School win its first girls soccer state championship.

As juniors, they and their Fighting Irish teammates were bounced from the semistate finals — but “played well enough to get to the final four,” according to coach Marc Behringer.

So as seniors, the soccer-playing members of Cathedral’s Class of 2010 wanted more.

“We really wanted the second one,” forward Mariah Whitaker said.

They got it. With a 2-0 win over No. 11 Fort Wayne Snider at Kuntz Stadium — after beating No. 4 South Bend St. Joseph’s 2-1 earlier in the day — the Fighting Irish won the state title, becoming the fourth school in Indiana history to win multiple titles.

“I was pretty proud of the girls two years ago, particularly the senior class,” Behringer said. “And now this senior class, though, with two state championships before they graduate, that’s really something special.”

Those seniors included Whitaker, forward Anna Ventimiglia, and defenders Jennifer Collins and Katie Wacker — all of whom also started as sophomores — along with sub forward Kyra Riggins.

In the semifinal win, they were invaluable; Ventimiglia put the Irish (19-4-2) up on the Indians (21-2-1) with an 11th-minute goal (her 12th of the year), and Whitaker broke a 1-1 tie with the game winner in the 74th minute (her 13th goal).

But those seniors weren’t alone.

“(We had) a lot of young players that played such huge roles this whole tournament as well,” Behringer said.

Those roles came, in part, in the form of goals against a Snider team that Behringer called “a fantastic opponent” — and which Cathedral played earlier in the year (in a 2-2 tie).

Junior forward Sophie Spenia — who also started in the 2007 title game — struck in the third minute (her eighth goal of the year) off a corner kick by Ventimiglia. Sophomore midfielder Jasmine Whitaker scored what amounted to an insurance goal (her sixth in 2009) with exactly 10 minutes to go.

“Then I was like, ‘Yes, we’re going to win this,’ " said Mariah Whitaker, the 2008 All-City Player of the Year who played the season recovering from offseason knee surgery.

In the end, Cathedral outshot Snider 20-2, a domination Behringer thought was possible thanks in part to the experience gained by having been there.

She wasn’t often tested, but junior goalkeeper Cara FitzGerald made a save in the second half to help keep the Panthers off the board — and help her team, and those seniors, accomplish their season-long goal.

“They just wanted to finish it the right way,” Behringer said.