St. Mary’s boys soccer spoils Saugus’ tourney bid

LYNN – The St. Mary’s boys soccer team has never had a regular season quite like this one.The Spartans completed a near perfect campaign on Wednesday night at Manning Field as Cristian Chavez and Chris George each scored twice during a five goal second half as St. Mary’s completed the regular season 15-1-2 with a hard earned 6-3 victory over Saugus on senior night.?We had a lot of players step up for us,” St. Mary’s coach Mike D’Agostino said. “This, I think, is the best record we’ve had in the regular season and to go 17 games without a loss is a huge accomplishment.”Getting the win on Wednesday proved to be a little more difficult than St. Mary’s fans might have expected as the Spartans had to fight past a Sachems team that was playing for its tournament lives. After getting down 4-0 early in the second half, Saugus fought back to within two twice and just missed on a chance to make it a one goal game with 8:00 left.?These kids fought so hard so it was tough to see a three minutes stretch like we had to begin the second half,” Saugus coach Dan D’Amico said. “But we met the challenge that St. Mary’s presented and we gave it everything that we had.”The Spartans were able to generate plenty of good scoring opportunities almost from the opening kick. They nearly scored in the first minute but Maroof Barry was robbed by Kurt Martin on a point blank chance following a turnover.Then in the 13th minute, senior midfielder Noah Camelo had another good chance but he rocketed a shot just past the right post. The Sachems also began to pick up their offensive tempo midway through the half and nearly broke the ice themselves but leading goal scorer Guilherme Barbosa was stopped on a nice diving save by Erik Whitcomb.St. Mary’s looked like it had taken the lead with 10:20 left in the half when Camelo’s free kick was stopped and Chavez scored on the ensuing rebound but the play was called offside. Just over three minutes later, the Spartans would get a goal that did count.Daniel Montoya streaked down the right wing and into the box before making a nifty pass in front just before he went out of bounds. Olushola George timed his run perfectly and was able to one-time the pass home with 7:50 left in the half to send St. Mary’s to the break with a 1-0 lead.The late goal proved to be just the kick start that the Spartans needed as they would blow the game open early in the second half.Barry got the onslaught started just 63 seconds in when he finished off a Chavez pass following a beautiful 50 yard pass by Camelo from the midfield. Just over three minutes later, Zach Stueve made a near perfect pass to Chavez up front for a quick shot into the top left corner that made it 3-0.Less than a minute later, Camelo was back on the scene again as he set up freshman Garcia who gave St. Mary’s its third goal in just 4:26 of playing time and a 4-0 lead.The Sachems didn’t go quietly, however, as Barboza got Saugus on the board with just over 24 minutes left. Five minutes later, Jorge Chiquillo suddenly made things very interesting with his tally that cut the lead ot 4-2.St. Mary’s quickly got that one back as Dan Hennessey set up George for his second goal of the game with 16:13 to go. But Saugus answered again on Barboza’s 30th goal of the season that cut the lead back to a pair.Barboza then had a chance to make things real interesting with 8:45 left when he got loose but sent a shot just wide of the left post. Less than a minute later, Camelo set up Chavez to cap the scoring.