Lynnfield girls soccer falls to Ipswich in shootout

LYNN – Through 100 minutes of soccer on Thursday at Manning Field, Ipswich and Lynnfield had milked all the drama they possibly could out of their Division 3 North semifinal but nothing had been decided through regulation and two overtimes.That left the teams to settle their third meeting of the season on penalty kicks. In the end it was Ipswich goalie Hannah O’Flynn who stole the show, stopping seven of the Pioneers’ nine attempts in the shootout as the Tigers won the shootout 3-2 and advanced to Saturday’s finals with a 2-1 win.Click here for a photo gallery.”That shootout was pretty crazy but Hannah was tremendous,” Ipswich coach Nancy Waddell said. “She played incredible (Thursday).”It was a bitter pill for the Pioneers to handle after coming out and dominating the second half after trailing 1-0 at the break before tying the game late in regulation and nearly winning it three times in overtime.”In the second half and through the two overtimes we played our game,” Lynnfield coach Mark Vermont said. “The first half we didn’t execute very well at all.”Lynnfield won the toss and would shoot first in the penalty kicks but saw Whitney Montesanto beat O’Flynn high only to ring the crossbar. Hannah Weagle converted on Ipswich’s first shot to put the Tigers in front.Lauren McCarthy, who tied the game for the Pioneers in regulation, deadlocked the shootout to begin the second round as the goalies took over from there. Nareh Sahakian’s diving save on Mariah Brockelbank’s shot kept it tied at 1-1.Both teams missed on their next two shots before Allegra DiCesare scored on the Pioneers’ fifth shot to put them on the brink of victory. Samantha Brown had to score for the Tigers to keep it going and she did by putting a bullet inside the right post.Sahakian and O’Flynn would then trade spectacular saves over the next three rounds as the tension built to a fever pitch. A Lynnfield miss to begin the ninth round gave Ipswich an opening and Bryn Golesworthy took advantage of it with a solid shot past Sahakian to win it for the Tigers.”PK’s were just a natural way to end it,” Vermont said. “But there’s a lot of pressure. You can practice it all you want but you can’t simulate what it’s actually going to be like.”The Tigers (11-6-4) came out and dominated for most of the first half. It easily could have been 2-0 early if not for Sahakian coming up with a pair of big saves.Golesworthy would get the Tigers on the board midway through the half when she took a Weagle pass and lofted a shot past Sahakian.Lynnfield finally began to put some pressure on offensively late in the first half and carried it over into the second 40 minutes where the Pioneers put the Tigers completely back on their heels.McCarthy nearly tied the game in the first minute when her shot rolled tantalizingly wide of the left post. The pressure continued to be applied and it finally paid off with 15:32 left when McCarthy got a loose ball in the box and buried it under the crossbar to deadlock things at 1-1.”What happened in that second half was they put on the pressure,” Waddell said. “We’re not a big scoring team so we need our defense to play well and they kept us in the game when Lynnfield had all the momentum.”