St. Mary’s girls edge Swampscott in the last minute, 2-1

LYNN – In the second half of a boys-girls soccer doubleheader at Manning Field on Monday, the tourney-bound St. Mary’s girls team played host to the Big Blue from Swampscott. St. Mary’s prevailed, 2-1.Swampscott had scored one goal in the last four games while the Spartans had been held scoreless for the last three games.In the first half, the defenses on both sides, as well as the keepers, Angela Dandreo for St. Mary’s and Bridget Genoversa-Wong for Swampscott, kept all the attackers from denting either net. At the end of the first half, the score was 0-0.The second half was only seven minutes old when the Spartans struck.Senior stopper Kristin Ferrari fed the ball through the top of the area to Maggie Carey, who was about eight yards out in front, and she caught the keeper moving across the goal and put the ball behind her into the open side.St. Mary’s splits the goalie duties between Dandreo and Bailey Bruckmann. Bruckmann plays the second half of all the games. Three minutes after the Spartan goal, the Big Blue tied up the game. The goal went to Marina Padovani with an assist to Taylor Eaton. Eaton played a through ball on the left wing to an overlapping Padovani, who beat Bruckmann to the far right side. That knotted the score at 1-1.The play went up and down the field with most of the attacking down the Spartan left wing. Freshman striker Carol DiMaiti was wreaking havoc with the right side of the Swampscott defense. The Spartans had a few chances to score as the clock was winding down to the end of the game but the Swampscott keeper kept coming up big with the saves to blunt the Spartans attack.With less than two minutes to go, St Mary’s had an injury and the game restarted with 1 minute 45 seconds to go. After a drop ball, the Spartans moved the ball from the right wing to the left. Carey put a through ball into the middle of the area where Chandler Capozzi one-timed the ball past the Big Blue keeper to give St Mary’s the lead, 2-1.The game ended and the Spartans came away with a win.After the game, Swampscott coach Francesco Recchia said, “We have lost five games in the last few minutes of play but this was the best game we have played all year. We are looking forward to next year as we lose only two starters.” Spartan coach Jim Foley was happy to escape with the win. He said, “This will get us ready for the states that will start this weekend. We will be ready to go.”