LYNNFIELD — Lynnfield boys soccer got off to a hot start and never looked back on its way to a 5-0 win over Rockport Thursday night at Lynnfield High School.
Jonathan Luders led the way for the Pioneers on offense, scoring two goals on penalty kicks in the second half. Max Sieger, Joseph Cibelli and Nathan Bass each added a goal for Lynnfield.
“He’s one of the best players around,” head coach Brent Munroe said of Luders. “We have a bunch of kids who can score on this team. Jonathan was an Eastern Mass all-star last year and one of the top players around and he’s back doing the same thing this season. He’s a goal scorer but he’s really great everywhere on the field.”
While five goals helped get the game out of hand, Munroe credits his defense for continuing dominate play.
“Our two center backs, Luke Martinho and David Gentile, played great and they have been all year,” Munroe said. “We have only given up a handful of shots all year so they do a great job. We have been scoring a lot of goals so it’s easy to give a lot of credit to the goal scorers but 5-0 means we didn’t give up any either and that’s just as important.”
After starting the game with possession, Lynnfield got on the board within the first 10 seconds of the game. Sieger used his speed to slip by the defense and catch up to a pass before sending a shot by Rockport’s goaltender to put Lynnfield up 1-0.
“It was huge,” Munroe said of the quick start. “We didn’t score again until there were about 10 minutes left in the half. 5-0 sounds more dominating than it really might have been, the first half was a real battle and the second half we kind of broke it open quick. It’s just good to get a win.”
The Pioneers got on the board again before the end of the first half when Thomas Buston found Cibelli open in the box to go up 2-0.
The hot start continued in the second half as Lynnfield scored three goals, within the the first 10 minutes of the half, to put the game out of reach.
The first came when a Rockport defender tripped up Luders and he was awarded a penalty kick. Luders sent a strong shot to the left side of the goal to give Lynnfield a 3-0 lead.
Just a few minutes later Sieger found an opening and carried the ball down the right side of the field before sending a nice pass across the box to Bass who finished the play to extend the lead to 4-0.
Lynnfield added its final goal after Rockport was called for a handball in their own box, giving Luders another penalty kick opportunity. Luders ripped the second shot to the left once again to give Lynnfield the 5-0 lead.
With the victory, Lynnfield improves to 3-0 on the year. Next up for the Pioneers is an away game Monday (3:45) at Hamilton-Wenham.
“That will be a real battle,” Munroe said of the matchup. “We are just looking to win as many good games as we can. We also have Masconomet and Pentucket coming up so our schedule will definitely be getting harder, but we are playing well and so far it has been great.”
