True superstars cannot be shut down, just contained.

Even when North Smithfield, Pilgrim and Coventry tried to do their best to contain Toll Gate junior striker Hannah McNulty, the best wasn’t necessarily good enough.

From the lethal corner kick play that sees McNulty cut the edge and rise above every player on the field to head the ball over the goalkeeper, to her ability to dribble and force her way by multiple defenders, she stood out as the season’s and tournament’s most prolific player.

“She’s kind of used to being clogged up like that, with defenders surrounding her,” Toll Gate head coach Lonna Razza said after her team’s opening-round, 4-1 win over North Smithfield. “But her finesse on the ball, she’s able to get around a defender, deke a defender, whatever it is. Fake them out, and she’s able to create her own space.”

“Just kinda gotta let her go and have at it.”

Despite not being a captain, she was undoubtedly one of the team’s most essential leaders for the Division II title campaign, helping the Titans to a 14-2 record heading into the playoffs. McNulty registered 53 regular season goals, which was 19 more than the next player, Johnston freshman Bianca Robbins. She was responsible for 61.6 percent of her team’s goals during the regular season.

Within Division II, it was 22 more than the closest player, Coventry’s Katie Beaudoin. It was Beaudoin’s team, which was previously undefeated, that received the most punishment from McNulty during the playoffs. In the finals on Sunday, McNulty potted her fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the postseason, two on penalty kicks, to secure the state championship for the Titans, 3-2.

In the postseason, McNulty had six of Toll Gate’s eight scores, starting with a couple against No. 6-seeded North Smithfield. After being shut down in the first half, McNulty broke free for two goals after the break. Her first came on a shot in the middle of the box amid several defenders, while her second was a header off the corner kick from freshman Julia Grossi.

Then, if Toll Gate wanted to reach the finals, it was cross-town rival and defending D-II champion Pilgrim it would have to get by. McNulty scored the only regulation goal in that game for the Titans, once again heading in Grossi’s corner kick in the 18th minute.

“Usually just keep moving around the box and Julia, she puts it exactly where we want it,” McNulty said after the Pilgrim game. “We tell her where to put it, she puts it there and we find a way to get it in the net.”

The game went to penalty kicks, and McNulty set the tone. She notched the first penalty for Toll Gate after Molly Lynch hit the crossbar for the Pats, and the Titans went on to win 3-1.

“We’re pumped,” McNulty said after beating Pilgrim. “We played a great team, it was a great game and we’re pumped. Warwick team gonna take the ‘ship again.”

She was right, and, as was the case with numerous Toll Gate victories this season, she helped make it happen.

The Titans will lose six players off their championship squad this offseason, including captains Heather Allstrom and Elizabeth Costello, but McNulty will be back for a shot at the repeat in 2016. She will be accompanied by Grossi, goalkeeper Ani Armenakyan and midfielder Marisa Giard, among others.

Since Division II formed in 1988, only five teams have ever repeated. With the best player in the state taking to the pitch for another season, Toll Gate could be the odds-on favorite to be the sixth.