LYNN– The St. Mary’s girls soccer team cruised to a 9-0 victory against Tech in the Lynn City Soccer Tournament Tuesday night at Manning Field.
The Spartans got goals from eight different players, including two from Julia Nickolau and one each from Susannah Cornell, Katie O’Neill, Jada Mateo, Sherly Feliz, Jenna Foley, Katie Miller and Maddy Spencer.
“We worked hard this offseason and scrimmaged a lot of different teams so it was good to see all that work come to fruition in the regular season opener,” Spartans coach Jim Foley said. “A score is a score but I think we got some good shots when we needed and defensively we were playing good. It was a good team effort.”
The Tigers may not have had many offensive chances but first-year coach David Miller was happy to see a few bright spots from his team against a tough matchup.
“We only had a couple of days together at the start of the season,” Miller said. “The little things I saw that I liked from my girls were some of our one-on-one defending and the effort was there the whole game. These are things I can work on.
“There is alot to improve on but that comes with playing more together as team. We have a lot of new girls this year and I’m a new coach too so they are learning me and I’m learning them,” Miller added. “I told the girls that today was like a scrimmage for us. We want to see what we can improve on and they are looking for wins. St. Mary’s was great, they have some great players and best of luck to them.”
St. Mary’s was on the attack early and often right from the first whistle. Nickolau netted the first two goals for the Spartans, both within two minutes of each other, to take a 2-0 lead.
Later in the first half, Cornell forced a turnover and scored to put the Spartans up 3-0 with 30 minutes to go in the first half.
The Spartans extended their lead further in the next ten minutes of play with goals from O’Neill, Mateo, Feliz and Foley to go up 7-0.
The Tigers couldn’t capitalize on their best scoring chance of the first half on a shot by Carolyn Pojoy Gomez with just over 10 minutes left in the half
Goals from Miller and Spencer put the game far out of reach, giving the Spartans a 9-0 lead to end the first half.
In the second half both teams went scoreless as St. Mary’s cycled the ball through its own defensive zone for a majority of the game’s end to secure the 9-0 win.
St. Mary’s will play Classical in the tournament’s championship game Saturday afternoon (1) at Manning Field.
“We’re definitely looking forward for Saturday,” Foley said. “We come here to hopefully play in the championship game every year and I’m sure we will get a battle from Classical. I’m sure it will be a great game and we will be ready to play.”
