City tourney launches soccer season

LYNN – The fall sports season kicked off Tuesday night — literally — with St. Mary?s and Classical winning their games and advancing to the championship of the Lynn City girls soccer tournament.The teams will play each other Saturday (1) for the title. In the eight-year history of the tournament, the Spartans have only been beaten once … and that was by English.St. Mary?s made certain that wouldn?t happen by defeating the Bulldogs, 4-0, in the second game of the doubleheader. Classical blanked Tech, 8-0, in the opener.The Spartans? win was a struggle. St. Mary?s grabbed an early lead in the seventh minute when Carol DiMaiti took a forwarding pass from Jennie Mucciarone and streaked past the English defense before depositing the ball past Bulldog keeper Kaitlyn Nadeau. And that was it for the first 40 minutes.?I think,” said Spartan coach Jim Foley, “that we had some opening-game jitters.”English coach Ed McNeil acknowledged his team will have trouble scoring this season. But he also praised the defense.?I was pretty pleased,” he said. “And I thought (Kaitlyn) played very well. We?re going to have trouble scoring, but we hung in for 60 minutes before things got away from us.”In the 18th minute of the second period, Michaela St. Cyr got possession of the ball out of a pileup in front of the English net, and it managed to find its way behind Nadeau.?That sparked us,” said Foley.Conversely, “I think that took a lot of the air out of us,” said McNeil. “You work so hard, and then they get a bad goal — and it was a bad goal — and it can really affect you.”Two minutes later, DiMaiti returned Mucciarone?s favor, feeding her the ball so she could score.?That?s what?s so great about those two,” said Foley. “They work so well together, and they don?t care who gets the goal. They enjoy setting each other up as much as they enjoy scoring.”With 13 minutes left, Katie Terban scored on a header from directly in front of Nadeau for the final Spartan goal.Classical 8, Tech 0Despite the score, Rams coach Justina Alicudo had her issues with the way her team played.?We made some mistakes,” she said, “mistakes that are going to have to be corrected if we?re going to win (Saturday).”Seven Rams scored; Franki Galeazzi had two goals. Other scorers were Shannon Magner, Devyn Astuccio, Rachel Jordan, Jess Perez, Briana Silva and Jenn Ierardi. Magner scored with only 48 seconds gone in the game.Despite the loss, Tech coach Jeremy McKeen was happy with several aspects, especially freshman keeper Coral Gonzalez.?I thought she was excellent,” said McKeen. “This is her first time playing soccer. She?s been playing for all of a week and a half. You could see her figuring things out as the game went along. She?s excellent on her feet and has good instincts. We?re glad to have her on the team.”McKeen had five girls show up today for the first time.?We?re still trying to figure out positions,” he said. “And we have four games this week, with North Shore Tech Friday. We?ll learn a lot about playing defense playing against them.”