St. Mary’s boys soccer on good footing

LYNN – The St. Mary’s boys soccer team is heading home for a chance to win the program’s first sectional title since 1988 after a dramatic 2-1 win over No. 4 Boston International on Monday night at Peabody High’s Coley Lee Field on Cristian Chavez’s penalty kick with 18:54 left in regulation.The top-seeded Spartans, who upped their unbeaten streak to 17-0-2 in the last 19 games, will play Manchester-Essex on Sunday afternoon (4:15) at Manning Field for the sectional title.Getting back to Manning proved to be quite a challenge for the Spartans as the Lions were able to use their speed to put the staunt St. Mary’s defense under attack at times. But coach Mike D’Agostino’s team was able to persevere and use their own speed to control play for most of the second half.?Boston International is very talented and has played some good teams,” D’Agostino said. “And they had a lot of speed and played a formation (3-5-2) that we hadn’t seen before. But the kids were able to pick it up quickly and did a great job.”The Spartans (17-1-2) wanted to come out and get off to a fast start and they met the challenge Boston posed right away.Less than two minutes into the game, midfielder Kevin Esper fed a long pass upfield that Dan Montoya was able to chase down. He then was able to outwait Lions keeper Eliseu Depina to chip a shot into the wide open net for 1-0 lead just 94 seconds in.?That was a great start for us,” D’Agostino said. “We stuck to the game plan and Kevin made a great pass to Dan.”The Spartans continued to put on the pressure and nearly took a 2-0 lead midway through the half when a corner kick bounced around in the box before Noah Camelo settled it down and sent a shot just wide of the goal.The Lions had yet been able to use their speed to generate chances. But in the final 10 minutes, Boston was able to begin to get pressure on. They got their best opportunity with just under 10 to go but Esau Aguilar headed a Emerson Cabral pass over the net.Late in the half, Camelo also had another glorious chance but his flick header off an Esper corner strayed just wide of the right post and the team’s went to the break with the Spartans holding their 1-0 lead.As it turned out, the drama was just beginning.The Lions nearly had the equalizer in the first two minutes of the second half when Erik Whitcomb was caught out of position but Marcos Espinosa’s shot went high over the open net.Six minutes later, it was the Spartans who were back on the offensive as a scramble in front of the Boston goal resulted in a golden chance for Zach Stueve but his shot went over a yawning goal, keeping it 1-0.Just when it seemed like St. Mary’s had begun to calm things down, defender Christian Couillard was called for a handball in the box, giving the Lions a penalty kick. Eber Moreno buried the shot into the lower left corner and suddenly the game was tied with 25:55 left in regulation.Most teams might have been shaken at the sudden turn of events. But the Spartans put their head down and went right back to work. The pressure nearly paid off moments later but Chris Garcia couldn’t convert on a point blank chance off an Esper corner.It was beginning to look like overtime might be needed until eighth grader Olushola George made the game’s biggest play. He chased down a ball that looked like it was going out of bounds and was able to find Chavez inside the box.He was taken down from behind and drew a penalty kick. The senior didn’t miss as his 23rd goal of the season put the Spartans back in front.?For Cristian to be able to put that ball away was huge,” D’Agostino said.The Spartans then cranked up the defensive pressure and were able to kill off the final minutes to return to the North final for the first time in three seasons.