Foley wins 200th as St. Mary’s girls beat Saugus

LYNN – The St. Mary’s girls soccer team defeated Saugus, 3-0, Wednesday in a game that saw coach Jim Foley notch his 200th career win.The night was also special for the Spartans because it was their final home game (and final regular season game) and that meant it was Senior Night.?Getting my 200th was great, but to do it on Senior Night was even more special,” Foley said. “This is a phenomenal group of seniors. They worked hard all summer.”Foley has been head coach of the program for 16 years and ironically, Saugus coach Chris Coviello was his assistant at one point.The game started off slowly on both ends, but the Spartans controlled play most of the way. St. Mary’s got on the board with 28 minutes left in the first half when junior Taylor Capozzi worked the ball down the right sideline and drilled to the far side where it rocketed off the post and into the net. The Spartans had another great chance in the first half when junior Kaylin Deschenes broke through the defense and past the goalie, but her shot went just wide of the far post.The Spartans came out of the half-time break energized with a couple of near misses by Capozzi, Deschenes and Temi Falayi serving notice that Sachem goalie Caitlin Williamson was going to have a busy second half.Capozzi struck again with just under 17 minutes left in the game when she took a pass from Sophia Holmes at midfield, eluded the defense and scored on a breakaway. A minute or so later, Deschenes broke through up the middle and popped one in. Madison Welch had the assist. Capozzi now has 18 goals.The two goals in the span of about a minute put the game out of reach for Saugus, although the Sachems did have a couple of nice bids down the stretch. St. Mary’s goalie Katie Donnelly didn’t see all that much action, but she did make a couple of nice saves.Saugus wraps up its season today against Winthrop.?I thought we played well in spurts,” Coviello said. “We just didn’t play a full game.”After the game, the St. Mary’s players presented Foley with a cake, celebrating his milestone. The nine seniors playing their final regular season game were Donnelly, Cassandra LaFauci, Paige Johnson, Meaghan O’Neill, Jordan D’Orsi, Paige Fielding, Holmes, Kristin Tansey and Welch.The Spartans (10-6-2) have already qualified for the state tournament and Saugus (6-10-2) was already mathematically eliminated before last night’s game.