St. Mary’s Katie Terban takes the ball up the field against Austin Prep at Manning Field.
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LYNN—For the first time in St. Mary’s school history, three fall teams have made it through to the North sectional finals. Both the boys’ and girls’ soccer squads advanced to the Division 4 sectional finals, while the football team will play in the Division 5 North final.
“It’s really special for a school of our size to have three teams in the sectional finals,” said girls’ soccer coach Jim Foley.
“It’s really a testament to our student-athletes and coaches,” said Athletic Director Jeff Newhall.
To make it even better for the Spartans, all three games will be played at Manning Field, the school’s home field. The football team will play Friday night, while both soccer games will take place on Saturday.
“It’s definitely going to have that home element for us,” said Newhall. “It’s certainly going to be an exciting time for the students and the community.”
“It’s a great venue,” said boys’ soccer coach Mike D’Agostino. “It’s definitely a huge advantage to play in Lynn and we should have a great crowd to cheer us on.”
“It’s good for the fan base, and the kids get to play in one of the best stadiums in the state, so it’s awesome to play at Manning,” said football coach Matt Durgin.
The No. 4 Spartans football team will be the first to take the field when it takes on No. 6 Greater Lowell (7-2) at 7 p.m. Friday. The Spartans (7-2) are coming off a 24-6 upset of No. 1-seed Bishop Fenwick last week.
“We played well last week against a very good team,” said Durgin. “But we’re fully focused on this week now. If we’re still celebrating the Fenwick win, we’ll be sorry come Friday.”
The boys’ soccer team (15-2-3) is back in the North final for the second consecutive year. Coming off a devastating 3-2 loss in penalty kicks to Manchester Essex in 2014, the No. 3 Spartans will be hungrier than ever when they face No. 1 Boston International (15-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“I’m very pleased with what we’ve done this year,” D’Agostino said. “We’re just looking to continue our momentum, and with me and the assistant coaches being alums of the school, we really want to bring that title back here.”
The girls’ soccer team, which finished the regular season with a 7-7-4 record and earned a No. 12 seed, took until almost the end of the season to qualify for the tournament.
“We had a slow start this year, but we really started to jell as the season went on,” said Foley. “We just came together as a team and now we’re peaking at the right time.”
The Spartans (10-7-4) will take on No. 14 Manchester Essex (9-11-1) on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. The Hornets have won their three tournament games by a combined score of 20-0.
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.
