LYNN — The Lynn Classical girls soccer team didn’t score many goals, nor did it win many games last season. But if Wednesday evening’s 8-0 Lynn City Tournament win over Tech was any indication of how the Rams will fare this season, Classical’s in a good place.
Coach Mark Ierardi, in his first season coaching the Rams, felt good about getting win number one out of the way early.
“It’s great, absolutely,” Ierardi said. “It’s also good for the girls because they have spent the whole preseason scrimmaging against each other and other teams, in games that didn’t matter. It was nice to get them out there in a competitive situation.”
Ierardi also saw plenty of positives from the Rams in their season opener. Although it took Classical a while to get its offense going, the Rams dominated possession and moved the ball throughout the field.
“We just had to be patient with it,” Ierardi said. “We told them, ‘it’ll come. Don’t try to go through people, move the ball with the pass and be smart.’ We told them to be smart.”
Tech played a strong game on the defensive end, holding the Rams scoreless for the first 36 minutes of action. Moving forward, the Tigers will work on creating scoring chances.
“It was the first time together for this group of girls,” Tech coach Bruce Diver said. “They haven’t had many practices together and they’re all new girls.”
Classical fought a combination of Tech’s stout defense and tough luck for the majority of the first half. The Rams kept the ball on Tech’s end of the field but couldn’t get it past Tigers goalie Jordyn Summerlin.
“That was our game plan coming in,” Diver said. “We knew it would be a tough game. The girls just had to play defensive, that’s what we can do right now.”
The Rams finally found their ray of luck when Julia Jordan, who notched a hat trick, scored the team’s first goal of the season in the 36th minute. Two minutes later, Mary Collins scored to bump Classical’s lead to 2-0.
Scoring two goals right before halftime, Ierardi said, gave the Rams a much needed boost.
“It was important because we told the girls to be patient,” Ierardi said. “They were starting to get a little frustrated but we told them that once we got one, more would come. They just had to be patient and not try to force anything, just patient soccer.”
The second half was all Classical. Goals scored by Olivia Pedro and Abigail Ierardi cushioned Classical’s lead to 4-0. Jordan and Olivia White each added a pair of goals in the latter stages of the half for the 8-0 Rams win.
With the victory, Classical claims a spot in Saturday evening’s tournament championship game against St. Mary’s at Manning. The Spartans ousted the Rams from last year’s tournament.
“We’ll have to prepare,” Ierardi said. “We’ll do some homework, we’ll take some notes and we’ll be there Saturday. It’ll be competitive.”
Tech will play against English in Saturday morning’s consolation game, also at Manning.
