St. Mary’s, Swampscott girls soccer teams tie 2-2

LYNN – The second game of the doubleheader at Manning Field pitted two of the better girls soccer teams on the North Shore. Swampscott, of the always-tough NEC, led by coach Fred Day, brought a 5-2-2 record into the game against a very strong St. Mary’s team from the CCL. The Spartans are coached by Jim Foley and came into the game with a 7-3-1 record. This was a game of halves; the Spartans owned the first half and the Big Blue owned the second. Perhaps appropriately, the game resulted in a 2-2 tie.The first half not only belonged to St. Mary’s, but more so to Amanda Webster, who controlled midfield for the Spartans and also scored both goals. The first goal was at the 10-minute mark. Webster took a through ball pass from Courtney Winters sending her into the top right corner of the area, where she blasted a low shot past Big Blue keeper Tara Nimkar that just got inside the left post. Ten minutes later, at the 20-minute mark, Webster scored her second of the night as she dribbled from left to right and from 35 yards out handcuffed Nimkar with the speed and curve of her shot. This pushed the score to Spartans 2, Big Blue 0. The remainder of the half was played mostly in Swampscott’s defensive end. Nimkar came up big with several saves that, had they gone in, would have put the game out of reach for Swampscott. The half ended with the score 2-0, St Mary’s.Day wrought some magic with his halftime changes. Swampscott came out on fire in the second half. In the 62nd minute, Casey Connolly sent in Marissa Gambale with a well-placed through ball that Gambale put past Spartan keeper Megan Brickley. This cut the score to 2-1, St. Mary’s.Like the first game, Swampscott was all over St. Mary’s and the Spartans were trying to hold on for the last 18 minutes but to no avail. In the 69th minute, a Big Blue attacker was taken down in the area and a penalty shot was called. The shot was taken by sophomore midfielder Erin Langan. Most right-footed kickers will shoot to their left. Shooting to the right is more difficult to control and you have less power in your shot. Langan stepped up to the ball and calmly put it in the right corner to tie the game at 2-2.The final eleven minutes were played with no further shots on net.Day was excited at his Big Blue team’s comeback. He said, “We made some changes and Gambale came through, which gave us the spark.”Foley was upset that the Spartans had squandered a 2-goal lead. He remarked, “We played well in the first half and we had trouble with them in the second.”St Mary’s plays another non-league game when the Spartans play Pentucket Regional from the Cape Ann League. Swampscott must now play the undefeated Tanners from Peabody later this week.