LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls soccer team knows what it takes to put together a strong season.
Year in and year out it starts with the Lynn City Tournament, which the Spartans pride themselves in winning.
Thus far it seems as though this year’s Spartans team is no different, as St. Mary’s took down English, 3-0, in the opening round of the tournament yesterday night at Manning Field.
“Our goal is to have a nice showing in the city tournament,” Spartans coach Jim Foley said. “We love playing in it, we enjoy playing in it. It’s great for the city. A lot of these kids know each other. I teach in Lynn, so it’s kind of cool for the whole city. This is usually our kick-off and it’s a great way to start the season.”
After 19 minutes of scoreless action, it was Susannah Cornell, a freshman, who scored St. Mary’s first goal of the season. Cornell kicked the ball past English goalie Tommi Hill, who was strong in net, for the 1-0 Spartans lead.
“Susannah was one of our better players in JV last season,” Foley said. “She came up toward the end of the season and played a lot of minutes on varsity. She played in the state tournament last year and it’s good when you get the younger players scoring. It helps.”
Mia Hatfield added a goal at the 34-minute mark to make it a 2-0 lead for the Spartans, and that’s where it stayed at halftime.
“They’re more skilled than us and to hold St. Mary’s to just three goals, I think is great,” Bulldogs coach Ed McNeil said. “We’re a very young team. We graduated 13 seniors and a lot of these girls haven’t played much varsity soccer. I think we held our own and I’m pleased.”
Things quieted down in the second half of play. English, known for its stout defense, kept the Spartans off the board until Gaby Diaz-Martinez found the back of the net in the 73rd minute. Diaz-Martinez’s goal made it a 3-0 lead for St. Mary’s and that was all the Spartans would need to claim the victory.
“Our defense was terrific,” McNeil said. “Grace Gately, senior captain, Tora Ueland, Brooke Zahine, the whole backline played great. Sydney Denham, captain, did a great job in the middle. I’m very pleased. I think this was a moral victory for us. If we can play this well, we can win some games.”
Despite the loss, Hill had a terrific performance in net for the Bulldogs. The English goalie finished the night with 30 saves.
“Tommi did a great job tonight, she had some great plays,” Foley said. “Ed plays defensively. They’re always tough to score on and it took us a while to get going. Once we got going, we were good. It took us a little too long to get going but we knew it would be a close game.”
With the win, the Spartans punched their ticket to the tournament championship game against Classical on Saturday night at Manning.
“We’re going to have to play a great game,” Foley said. “They’re a great team with a new coach. I know they’ll be fired up to play us. We’re the defending Lynn City Champions so I’m hoping for a good showing.”
English now shifts its focus to Saturday morning’s consolation game, also at Manning, against Tech.
“We want to come out of the tournament with a win,” McNeil said. “We’ve never finished the tournament without a win so we want to beat Tech so we can come out of here 1-1.”
