Lynnfield girls bound for state semifinal

LYNN – The Lynnfield girls soccer team has been one of the top programs on the North Shore for the better part of the last decade but they hadn?t won a sectional championship since winning back-to-back state titles in 2003 and 2004.Saturday at Manning Field, the Pioneers exorcised 10 years of demons with 80 minutes of dominating soccer. Lynnfield scored three times in the final 7:30 of the first half and then rode the back of their dominating defense to take a 3-1 win over North Reading to claim the Division 3 North title.The Pioneers (16-4-2) will play South champion Dedham, a 2-1 winner in a shootout over Medway, on Wednesday (TBD) at Brockton?s Marciano Stadium in the Eastern Mass finals.?Our seniors have had a lot of tough losses in the tournament over the years and they wanted to take it to another level (Saturday) and that?s what they did,” Lynnfield coach Mark Vermont said. “It was a great battle and it always is when we play North Reading.”For the Pioneers, finishing the job in the North final had been on their minds since the first day of practice. A year ago, they got to the same spot and lost 1-0 in penalty kicks to eventual state champion Newburyport.?It certainly had been on our minds from the beginning of the season,” Vermont said. “The girls wanted to get the job done and they did. I?m very proud of them.”The game nearly started off perfectly for the underdog Hornets as they had a golden chance to take a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes when Hannah Travers bobbled a bouncing ball but Marissa Zarrella?s shot rolled past an empty net.The Hornets (13-7-2) controlled possession for most of the opening 20 minutes could not get any shots through on Travers. At the other end, the North Reading defense shut down the Lynnfield offense and it stayed scoreless into the late moments of the half.That?s when the Pioneers got their first corner kick and made it a good one. Emily Scollard took the kick from the left corner and bent her shot into the top right corner to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead with 7:27 left in the half.That opened the floodgates as the Lynnfield offense began to go on all cylinders.The Pioneers doubled the lead less than four minutes later as freshman Lizzie Shaievitz, who came off the bench to give Lynnfield a big boost with her speed, made a perfect throw-in that ended up on the foot of Abbie Weaver. Her quick turnaround shot got past Hornets keeper Courtney Luker to give Lynnfield a 2-0 lead with 3:19 left in the half.?We told Lizzie to go in and go as fast as she could and cause all kinds of problems,” Vermont said. “And that?s exactly what she did.”The Pioneers went for the jugular as time ran down in the half. Once again it was Weaver who did the damage as she scored off a scramble in front o the North Reading net with less than a minute to go to make it 3-0.The Hornets showed their mettle and came right back to cut the lead to 3-1 at the break when Zarrella beat the defense to a long ball and got it past Travers.?I think it took about 10 years off my life when they went down and popped that one in,” joked Vermont.Still leading by two in the second half, Lynnfield turned to its stingy defense to lead the way to a title.The Pioneers held North Reading to only two shots in the second half, including a stellar save by defender Haley Iapicca with Travers out of position midway through, as they were able to celebrate a long awaited title.?There was a different feeling around the team coming into the game,” Vermont said. “They wanted to get it done and they did.”