LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield girls soccer team punched its ticket to the Division 3 North tournament Tuesday with a 3-0 win over Triton at Pioneer Stadium.
“It’s great,” Lynnfield head coach Mark Vermont said of clinching a spot in the tournament. “As a team you want to get that done as soon as possible. Now looking ahead we can continue to work and improve and also focus on getting a higher seed.”
Molly Ozanian, Emma Montanile and Anna-Marie Ferrante each had one goal for the Pioneers. Ashley Mitchell and Emma Ricciardi each had one assist, both on perfectly placed passes in front of the net.
“I thought we moved the ball well today,” Vermont said. “We were attacking and attacking well throughout the game. We had some great opportunities on some corner kicks and great passing.
“Those are the things we work on a lot at practice so it’s good to see that it pays off,” Vermont added. “I thought the defense was strong, it’s always good to get a shutout. In the midfield we found the marks and moved the ball well so overall it was a great win for us.”
The Pioneers went on the offensive early and found the back of the net after the first few minutes. On a Lynnfield corner kick Mitchell placed the ball right in front of the Triton goal, Ozanian lept into the air and deflected the kick off her body to put Lynnfield ahead 1-0.
Lynnfield added another goal with 13:42 remaining in the first half. After controlling an inbound pass, Montanile turned and ripped a far, arching shot that slipped above the Triton goalkeeper to extend Lynnfield’s lead to 2-0.
Meanwhile, several attempts at a scoring chance by the Vikings were quickly shut down by the Pioneer defense.
Lynnfield goalkeeper Amberly McCarter also made several aggressive stops, one of which came when a Triton attacker slipped by the Pioneer defense with 24 minutes left to play. McCarter made a sliding stop to steal possession and shut down the Vikings’ best scoring chance of the day.
The rest of the second half was more of the same as Lynnfield moved the ball well and controlled a majority of the play before adding another late goal.
With a few minutes left in the second half, Ricciardi carried the ball up the right sideline before sending a perfect pass across field that Ferrante finished with a header goal to extend the Lynnfield lead to 3-0.
With the game well out of reach for Triton Lynnfield was able finish off the rest of the game with substitute players.
The Pioneers (9-2-1) mission to finish the season as a top seed starts with a game at rival North Reading on Thursday (3:45).
“That game is always a battle for us,” Vermont said of North Reading. “It’s North Reading, so for us it’s like Red Sox-Yankees. It’s their home game so they will be up for us and ready. It will be a great battle, that’s how I see it.”
