St.Mary’s and Classical girls will meet in Lynn city final on Saturday

LYNN – Both the Classical and St Mary’s girls soccer teams pitched a shutout to advance to the girls championship round on Saturday afternoon.Click here for a photo gallery.St. Mary’s, the three-time defending champion, will try to make it four in a row when it plays Classical in the title game Saturday (1 p.m.). St. Mary’s defeated English 2-0 in the second game of the day.In the opening game, Classical defeated Tech, 5-0, in a game that could have been more lopsided if not for the exceptional play of Tiger keeper Mah Weah Weah, who made more than 20 saves, many of them on the brilliant side. Tech was also hurt by only having 13 players dressed for the game.”We hope to have more girls come out now that school has started.” Coach Kerri Altieri saidThe first 20 minutes was an even game mostly played in the midfield. Gradually the superior depth of the Rams forced the Tech defense into turnovers. In the 22nd minute, Brianna Capone (one of four captains) stole the ball from a Tech defender in the arc, took one dribble to her right and put the ball low left past the keeper and into the net. Six minutes later, Erin Walters made the same move, stealing the ball and firing a lofting high shot that went over the keeper into the top left corner to push the score up to 2-0. Coach Marcy Durgin kept the pressure on Tech by constantly substituting and had fresh players to harass the faltering defense of the Tigers. The half ended with the score 2-0.The second half was the Jennie Erekson show as she had a hand in all three goals scored by the Rams. In the 55th minute, Erekson scored with a shot off the right wing that went in under the diving keeper. The assist on the goal went to Brianna Capone. Three minutes later, Erekson set up Erin Walters for her second goal of the game, a short blast from 10 yards out that the keeper had no chance to save. The final goal of the game came in the 63rd minute. The Tech keeper made an outstanding save and the ball deflected to Erekson, who had the whole net to shoot into. She made no mistake and the score went to 5-0.Classical then emptied the bench and the starters spent the remaining 17 minutes on the bench. Classical has only one senior on a team of 23 players. After the game, Durgin was asked about the experience of her team.”The sophomores and juniors had a tremendous amount of playing time last year. They’re battle tested and play very well in big games,” she said.Tech coach Kerri Altieri was pleased with the effort of her team.”We gave it everything we had. My team hustled the whole game and this should help us as we go into our regular season,” she said.Tech plays English Saturday in the girls’ consolation game at 9 a.m.The second game looked like a scrimmage with both teams substituting freely during the first half. In the 39th minute of the first half, St Mary’s finally broke the ice. A shot by St Mary’s was deflected by English keeper Brittany Goulet. Molly Carey fired a shot at the empty net only to have the English sweeper, Shawna Henry, clear the shot off the line. The clear went to Brianna Holmes, who drilled the ball into the low left corner. This put St Mary’s on top 1-0.The second half was an exact duplicate of the first. Both teams continued to substitute and the game went on at a frantic pace with good defense on both sides shutting down good offense. With a minute remaining in the game, the Spartans sealed the victory with the Carey sisters providing the double whammy. Molly Carey centered the ball to Maggie Carey, who one-timed it past Goulet, who had no chance to make a play. The game ended a few seconds later.”We lost six starters – our scorers and our entire backfield, including the keeper,” St. Mary’s coach Jim Foley said. “The kids came together tonight and stepped up when they had to. I was very pleased with their play.”Ed McNeil was also pleased with his team’s performance.”Our defense played very well. The keeper had no chance on either goal. We have to put the ball in the n