A tie = a title

LYNN – The St. Mary’s boys soccer team hasn’t lost since the opening game of its season in the semifinals of the Lynn City Tournament. On Monday at Manning Field, the Spartans had a chance to clinch the Catholic Central League/Large title against arch rival Bishop Fenwick.View Photo Gallery
St. Mary’s got into a 1-0 hole midway through the first half before tying the game late in the opening 40 minutes. They would then go on to dominate the play for the final half but couldn’t break the tie as the teams settled for a 1-1 tie that was good enough to clinch the title for St. Mary’s.
Despite making it 14 straight games without a loss and locking up a league title, there weren’t a lot of happy faces on the St. Mary’s side afterwards.
?We got outhustled,” said a blunt Spartans coach Mike D’Agostino. “Fenwick showed the heart and desire. It’s not a loss, so I’ll take that. But it feels like one.”
The Spartans (12-1-2) had a decided advantage in shots on goal at 12-2, including holding Fenwick (5-7-2) without a shot in the second half, but ran into a brick wall in Crusaders keeper Garth Murray.
?We wanted to eliminate the mental mistakes we made the first time against them,” Fenwick coach Steve Flaherty said. “Mike has a quality team over there so we needed to come out good and we did.”
Both teams struggled to get a foothold in the early going with St. Mary’s having the only real quality chance to score as Phil Hatchouel sent a chance just over the net from about 30 yards out in the seventh minute.
Gradually, the Spartans began to tilt the play towards Murray’s goal and nearly took the lead midway through the half but Maroof Barry was robbed on a diving save from close range. That save seemed to give the Crusaders the jump start they needed and they paid it off six minutes later.
Off a scramble in front of St. Mary’s keeper Erik Whitcomb, Fenwick’s Pat Walsh picked up the loose ball and ripped a shot inside the right post with 14:10 left in the half to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead.
The Spartans continued to pressure but had nothing to show for their efforts until D’Agostino called timeout with 9:10 left in the half to try and make some changes.
It didn’t take long for the changes to pay off, a little over a minute in fact, as Noah Camelo rocketed a shot from the top of the penalty area to draw the Spartans even.
It would be the first of several good chances that Camelo would have in the offensive end over the final 46 minutes. His best came late in the first half when Murray dove to his left to make a beautiful save on a shot that was ticketed for inside the right post as the teams went to the break tied.
St. Mary’s would continue to control the play for most of the final 40 minutes, thanks to solid play up front from freshman Olushola George. Problem for the Spartans was they couldn’t finish off any of the chances they were getting.
With just under 11 minutes left, a nice series of passes sent Cristian Chavez in on a partial break but Murray was able to react and make a nice kick save with his right foot to keep the game tied.
?We had a lot of shots but just didn’t take advantage of them,” D’Agostino said