St. Mary’s boys soccer ekes one out

LYNN – There were times on Thursday night that the Division 4 North quarterfinal between No. 1 St. Mary?s and No. 8 Rockport resembled a rugby match instead of a soccer game as both teams battled through challenging conditions at Manning Field.
In the end, it was a beautiful play by Daniel Montoya and Chris Garcia that boosted the Spartans to a 1-0 win as Montoya’s nifty finish on a give-and-go with 18:35 left stood up as the winner.?Rockport is a very good team,” St. Mary’s coach Mike D’Agostino said. “Coach (Dave) Curley knows so much about the game and we knew it was going to be a battle. That was a great play by Daniel to get the goal.”The victory came at a hefty price for St. Mary’s as starting forward Dan Hennessey was lost for the next two games after he received two yellow cards. He will sit out the Spartans? semifinal game on Wednesday at Peabody against either Boston International or Lynnfield and a potential North final next Sunday.For St. Mary?s (16-1-2), getting past the Vikings (9-8-4), one of the most consistent powers on the North Shore, was certain to be a challenge. As it turned out, it was more of a challenge than anyone might have expected, as the Vikings? physicality helped to keep St. Mary’s powerful offense in neutral for long periods of time.In the first half alone, there were nearly five times as many fouls as there were shots on goal. The Spartans had the best chance for either team in the opening 40 minutes and it came right off the opening kick as Noah Camelo whistled a shot just over the crossbar.The rest of the half would be dominated by physical defense as neither team was willing to give an inch. The teams combined for only one shot on goal and headed into the locker room scoreless.?I thought that we were able to control the play at times and had some chances that we didn’t finish,” D’Agostino said.Play play began to loosen up in the second half. The Vikings had the first real good chance early on as Matt Tibert fired a direct kick that was swallowed up by St. Mary’s keeper Erik Whitcomb.Just over 10 minutes later, the Spartans had a golden chance to get the all-important first goal when Cristian Chavez was sent in alone on a partial breakaway. Nick Sanfillipo was able to break it up but Chavez fed to Montoya for a shot that went just wide of the left post.Just over five minutes later, St. Mary’s got on the scoreboard. Montoya raced down the right wing and into the box. He put on the breaks and fed a pass to Garcia before using a pick to shake free of his defender and get a return pass for a quick chip past keeper Jacob Rostowski.?That was a great play by those two. We finally got the ball from the outside into the middle and
Daniel finished it nicely,” D’Agostino said.St. Mary’s dominant back line controlled the rest of the game. The Spartans allowed only three shots on Whitcomb’s net for the game as they ran off the final minutes after Montoya’s goal to clinch their spot in the semis.