Loss can’t dampen fantastic season for Pioneers

WORCESTER – The Lynnfield girls soccer team came into this season on a mission to bring a state title back to the program for the first time since 2004.On Friday night at Worcester Polytechnic Institute?s Alumni Stadium those dreams ran squarely into an immensely talented Nipmuc team, which dominated from first kick to the final whistle in a 5-0 win in the Division 3 state final.The loss, however, did nothing to diminish what the Pioneers? outstanding senior class did over the last two seasons after failing to qualify for the tournament as sophomores.”These seniors led this team as a group. They kept fighting and I am so proud of them as a coach,” Lynnfield coach Mark Vermont said. “They were a great group.”Lynnfield came within a shootout of winning a sectional title last season and followed up this year with a second straight Cape Ann League/Small title and their first North title in a decade.”This year has meant everything to me,” said Lynnfield senior Emily Scollard. “I never expected that I would get a family out of the last few years but I couldn’t ask for anything better than to have been a part of this team.”For most of the season it had been an unstated goal for Lynnfield to get back to the North final and beyond. It was that motivation that senior Paige MacEachern acknowledged as the reason her team was on the Alumni turf Friday night.”We wanted to get further than we did last year and we wound up getting all the way to states,” MacEachern said. “All of us girls have been playing together since U-6 and up and to end it here makes it very special.”The Pioneers ran into a team on Friday that had surrendered only 18 goals in 23 games and that dominance showed as Nipmuc never let Lynnfield’s offensive guns get going.Despite the lopsided score, there were lots of smiles going around for Lynnfield when it received the runner-up trophy.”The outcome wasn’t what we wanted but these girls didn’t stop fighting until the final whistle,” Vermont said.