The preliminaries are over, and now the main event begins.
Teams that have been on practice fields since the middle of August will get to wear their school uniforms this week and start playing for keeps. And that goes double in Lynn, as the city’s annual soccer invitational begins today at Manning Field.
Instituted 14 years ago by former St. Mary’s athletic director Paul Athanasiadas, the tournament pits all four Lynn schools against each other, both boys and girls.
Tonight, the boys start things off with Classical against Tech at 5 p.m., followed by St. Mary’s and English (7).
Wednesday, the same schools, with the same pairings and times, will compete in the girls’ preliminary.
This week, all five Lynn schools will play their opening football games at Manning Field. That’s because KIPP Academy, for the first time, is fielding a team. The Panthers will play their maiden game at 7 p.m. against Atlantis Charter School of Fall River.
The following night, there will be a doubleheader at Manning, with St. Mary’s hosting Saugus in the early game (5) and Classical lining up against Medford (7:30). It’ll represent the first time the Mustangs play a Northeastern Conference game. They are joined this year in the newly-formatted NEC by Malden and Somerville in football while Everett plays an independent schedule. The Crimson Tide will play in the NEC in all other sports for the rest of the season.
Saturday the action will be non-stop at Manning. The consolation games for the Lynn city soccer tournament will start at 9 a.m. Then, at 2 p.m., we’ll switch from soccer to football as Beverly comes to town to face English.
As soon as that game ends, it’ll be back to soccer, city tournament girls and boys soccer finals at 5:30 and 7:30 respectively.
