LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys soccer team had yesterday’s date circled on its calendar throughout the preseason. In a Lynn City Tournament rematch against English, the team that stunned the Spartans in last year’s final, St. Mary’s was aiming to avenge 2016’s blemish. With a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs at Manning Field, that’s exactly what the Spartans did.
“We tried to play our style with our momentum of passing and moving the ball,” Spartans coach Mike D’Agostino said. “We did very well for the first 15 minutes of the game. We definitely controlled the tempo.”
The first half was relatively quiet on both ends. Neither team managed to find the back of the net until St. Mary’s scored its first goal of the season in the 29th minute. Thiago De Oliveira found the bottom left corner of the net to beat English goalie Billy Allen for the 1-0 Spartans lead.
“Once we got that first shot by Thiago on the give and go from Garcia, we really got it going,” D’Agostino said. “It was a beautiful goal and that’s what we needed to happen.”
Chris Garcia, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, sent a pair of shots Allen’s way two minutes later but the first was wide and the second hit the crossbar, meaning English dodged two bullets. St. Mary’s held its 1-0 lead at the half.
“I think we’re very young, especially defensively,” Bulldogs coach Kerry King said. “I graduated 10 seniors from last year’s team. I think the speed of the game was a little bit tough for some of these kids.
“St. Mary’s is very talented this year,” King added. “They’re a dangerous team and we’re a work in progress. We’re a young, rebuilding team.”
Garcia finally broke through in the the 47th minute, giving St. Mary’s a 2-0 advantage in the early stages of the second half. Five minutes later, Garcia, a senior, added another goal to bump the edge to 3-0 in St. Mary’s favor.
“Chris had a lot of high energy and motivation,” D’Agostino said. “It was his last time playing Lynn English so he had a lot of adrenaline and he had to control it. When he settled down, things started flowing for him.”
From there, the Spartans were well in control en route to the 3-1 win over the Bulldogs. Patrick Nkada scored English’s lone goal of the night in the 73rd minute.
Moving forward, English will look to make improvements on offense in hopes of generating more scoring opportunities. The Bulldogs will clash against Tech on Saturday morning in the city tournament consolation game at Manning.
“Our expectations are to compete hard and win every game,” King said. “Unfortunately, St. Mary’s was the better team tonight. They have a lot of talent up front and they’re very dangerous. Garcia’s a terrific player and I think they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in their conference.”
With the win, St. Mary’s clinched a spot in Saturday’s tournament final against Classical. The Spartans defeated Classical in last year’s tournament.
“They’re another good team that works hard,” D’Agostino said. “We lost to Classical in the tournament two years ago and we haven’t won it in a few years. We’re definitely eager to take it.”
