Kristin Verrette’s hat trick leads Fenwick girls over St. Mary’s, 5-2

PEABODY – On Columbus Day, the Bishop Fenwick girls soccer team played host to St. Mary’s. Kristin Verrette had a hat trick as the Crusaders won 5-2.The game had many implications, three of which were paramount. First, these two teams have been fighting for years for supremacy in the Catholic Central Large. Second, they are not that far apart in distance, and until recent years, they have been Thanksgiving Day opponents (until St. Mary’s began playing Tech the eve of Thanksgiving). Third, the days are dwindling down to about three weeks to qualify for the state tourney. At the kickoff of yesterday’s game, both teams had records under .500.With the win, Fenwick improved to 3-3-4 (3-0-3 league, second place). St. Mary’s fell to 4-6-1 (2-4-1 league). To qualify for the tournament, a team must win 50 percent of its possible points or finish second in its league.When asked about the losses so far this year, Fenwick coach Karen Guillemette said, “We schedule the strongest teams we can find. This will make us stronger in the states. We scheduled and lost to Central Catholic, Duxbury and Danvers. We still have to play Swampscott and Peabody.”Yesterday, St. Mary’s jumped off to a quick 1-0 lead with only five minutes gone when Chandler Cappozzi, with an assist from Courtney Winters, put the ball behind Fenwick keeper Jill Dean. Fenwick came storming back at the 14-minute mark when Verrette potted the first of her three from out in front of the Spartan keeper, with the assist going to Keri Acheson. She put in her second goal at the 30-minute mark on a nice move going down the wing; this assist went to Emily Iuliano. The half ended with the score 2-1, Fenwick.The second half had only just begun when, in the 42nd minute, Elly O’Leary scored the first of her two goals with a blast from the top of the area, with the assist going to Verrette. This made the score 3-1, Fenwick. Verrette completed the hat trick at the 50-minute mark with an assist to Becca Graves. One minute later, O’Leary put the game out of reach with her second of the game, with an assist to Acheson. This pushed the score up to 5-1.In the 65th minute, Winters scored from a scramble out in front of the Fenwick net. Dean had seven or eight players trying to get at the ball and Winters put it in. It was too little, too late. Fenwick played extra defenders and was content to kick the ball into the Spartans’ end until time ran out.Fenwick next plays Swampscott (7-1-1) tonight in a possible preview of tourney play. St Mary’s will travel to Middleton on Friday to play 5-4-1 North Shore Tech.Guillemette was happy with the win. She said, “Any time you can beat a good team like St Mary’s, you will take it. They played very well and we were fortunate.”Regarding the stretch drive to a tourney berth, Spartans coach Jim Foley said, “It is up to us to do it. It is all in our hands.”