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Lucy Johnson never asked for a target on her back.

Yet, whenever the Cheverus senior laced up her cleats or her skates and picked up a stick, it was there.

Sometimes, the pressures and expectations that came with being one of the best field hockey and ice hockey players in the state were just as difficult to navigate as the double- and triple-teams thrown at her by opposing defenses.

But, as she did against those defenses, Johnson always found a way through.

“It’s inevitable,” Cheverus ice hockey coach Scott Rousseau said. “And I say it to the coaches, ‘You’re going to bet against her? Really?’ Who would bet against her?”

During the 2024-25 school year, anyone who did was placing a losing wager.

In the fall, Johnson recorded 34 goals and eight assists for the undefeated Cheverus field hockey team, while raising Maine’s all-time scoring record to 152 goals (she broke the previous mark of 111 as a junior) and becoming the second person in her family to win Miss Maine Field Hockey (older sister Lily Johnson won the award in 2023). And, for the third time in four seasons, the Stags went undefeated and earned the Class A championship.

In the winter, Johnson was named a finalist for the Becky Schaffer Award, given to the top senior girls hockey player in the state, after recording 29 goals and 15 assists for the Cheverus ice hockey team, which went 17-1-1 and completed the first three-peat in Maine girls hockey history with an overtime win over Brunswick in the state final. Her 161 career points are the second-most in program history.

Johnson’s combination of high-level individual and team success is why she is the 2024-25 Varsity Maine Female Athlete of the Year.

“It was just a great feeling to end my senior year with that (win against Brunswick),” Johnson said. “And Miss Maine was probably one of my favorite accomplishments, especially (with) my sister winning the year before. It was just an awesome feeling to really see all the accomplishments add up into one goal at the end.”

Whether it was with her speed, her game knowledge, her meticulous drilling of basics skills, or her relentless motor, there wasn’t a goal Johnson couldn’t reach. And whenever Cheverus needed a goal, the Stags knew where to turn. Especially if it was a high-pressure situation.

Johnson, the Varsity Maine Field Hockey Player of the Year, scored twice, including the go-ahead goal, in the 3-2 regional final field hockey victory over Biddeford and twice in the 3-1 Class A title win over Brewer. She notched a hat trick and an assist in the Stags’ 7-1 state semifinal ice hockey triumph over the Portland co-op, and scored two goals against Brunswick, including the equalizer that sent the championship to overtime.

“At the end of the day, I would always just play my own game and focus on that,” Johnson said. “One game at a time, no matter who the opponent was, no matter how they tried to stop me from getting the ball or the puck. … Just keep playing the game and, it’s fine, you’ll get through it. They can’t be everywhere you are. You just have to work 10 times harder if they want to do this to you.”

Johnson is quick to credit her teammates whenever discussing any of her achievements, which include a 71-1 career field hockey record, a 67-10-2 career ice hockey record, multiple all-state awards in both sports and three third-team all-American selections by the NFHCA.

Although she needed some convincing from teammates to wear her six state championship rings to graduation, Johnson said she will be sure to pack them with when she reunites with her sister, Lily, on the Boston University field hockey team this fall.

Johnson steps away from high school athletics having set a standard for the entire state.

“She is humble, she’s team-based, she elevates the play of those around her,” Cheverus field hockey coach Andrea Musante said. “I just truly hope that there’s some girl sitting there somewhere in Maine and looking at what she’s done and thinking, ‘I can do that, too.'”

But it won’t be easy to match or surpass Lucy Johnson.

“She literally is the greatest team sport athlete our state has ever seen in female athletics,” Rousseau said. “I think the only thing that’s hurt her is because she doesn’t play basketball, which is, you know, our biggest sport in Maine, right? She’s playing two sports that might not get the same attention. She’s not, you know, mentioned with (athletes) like Cindy Blodgett, for instance. But Cindy Blodgett didn’t win six state championships, she won four.

“It’s amazing what (Johnson) has done. It truly is amazing, and I don’t think it gets enough recognition for the level of success she’s achieved in her high school career.”