St. Mary’s girls soccer ties Arlington Catholic 0-0

LYNN – Two of the three top teams in the Catholic Central Large squared off yesterday at Manning Field. The result was a scoreless tie.Arlington Catholic tied for first place in the league with a 12-3 record (8-1 league). The Cougars are tied with Bishop Fenwick. St Mary’s is in third place with a 9-3-4 record (4-3-2 league). Both teams have qualified for the tourney, AC in Division 2 and the Spartans in Division 3. St. Mary’s, however, can be the spoiler in the league as it played AC to a tie and will play Fenwick later this week.AC coach Manny Bermejo had his team ready to play. He said, “This is a big game for us. St. Mary’s is a very good team and we have to get by them if we want to win the league.”Jim Foley, the Spartan coach, has nowhere to go in the league. He can’t win it, so he is playing for a high seed in Division 3. He said, “We have some injuries in the defense. They are a good team. They beat us in Arlington.”The first half was played like a heavyweight prize fight. Each team cautiously attacked, and then the other team counterattacked. Both keepers, Megan Brickley of the Spartans and Kelsey Roberson of the Cougars, had very little to do during the first 40 minutes. Shots that came from 35-40 yards out and shots that rolled to the keeper were all they had to handle. The half ended with no score.The second half started with the same patient attacks by both teams. Coach Foley kept substituting players, looking for the right combination that would produce a goal, but it never came. All-everything Amanda Webster was unable to kick her game into high gear because she was closely marked when she did not have the ball by one defender. As soon as she received a pass, she was double-teamed and, near the end of the game, triple-teamed. In the last 15 minutes of the game, both teams came to life and made runs that were well put together. On the Spartans’ back line, defenders Sarah Felton, Sara Conway, Maria Piperidis, Briana Marotta, Lauren Pohle and sweeper Stephanie Mowry shut down the AC attackers that were looking for the one goal that would give them a victory and keep them tied with Fenwick. On the offensive end, the Spartans were able to do very little with the Cougar defenders. The game ended with neither team on the scoresheet. The keepers and the defenders on both teams stood tall in this game.Foley seemed content with the tie.”We spoiled it for Arlington,” he said. “Now we want to do the same to Fenwick.” The big game comes next Monday when Arlington Catholic travels to Peabody to settle the league title with Fenwick. AC’s league record goes to 8-1-1 and the Spartans’ league record is 4-3-3.