Make room for the St. Mary’s girls soccer team on the Division 4 North state tournament bracket.
On an afternoon in which the Spartans honored longtime coach Jim Foley with a pregame ceremony, St. Mary’s clinched a postseason bid with a 7-0 shutout win over Pope John at Manning Field.
“It’s nice that we clinched it now,” Foley, who has coached the Spartans for 20 seasons, said. “Now we’re playing for seeding. It’s good to get in. It’s always a goal of ours to get in the tournament, that’s what we’re looking for. To do it with five games left to play is even better. Now we’re working on our seeding.”
St. Mary’s featured six different goal scorers in Saturday’s victory. Jenna Foley led the offense with two goals, while Kayla Demers, Susannah Cornell, Jada Mateo, Katie O’Neill and Riley Flannery each scored once. Spartans goalie Eliza Brown earned the shutout win in net.
The Spartans led 1-0 thanks to Demers, who scored the game’s first goal with 32:03 left in the first half. The next 12 minutes were scoreless but once St. Mary’s regained control of the game, the Spartans never looked back and Pope John couldn’t keep up. St. Mary’s closed the first half with six goals in a 14-minute span to lead 7-0 at the midway break.
“We have to play every game like we played against Austin Prep (1-0 loss last week),” Foley said. “If we do that, we’re going to be successful. We started out a little slow, we can’t do that. We just have to come right out. We hit the switch, settled in and did what we needed to do.”
The Spartans improved to 9-4-1 and visit Williams Monday afternoon (4) at Memorial Field.
“Williams is a good team,” Foley said. “They won the (Catholic Central) League last year. They lost their two best players from last season, their best scorers. They’re still a good team and it’s always tough when we go down there.”
BOYS SOCCER
Lynnfield 6, Austin Prep 0
Nathan Bass scored two goals and Jon Luders scored one goal with three assists to lead Lynnfield. Mike Gentile and David Gentile led Lynnfield’s defense.
The Pioneers (11-1) host Manchester-Essex Monday afternoon (3:45).
St. John’s 3, Malden Catholic 1
At Cronin Stadium, the Eagles put the game out of reach with two goals in the second half after carrying a 1-0 lead at halftime.
St. John’s goals were scored by Tucker Smith, Jake Surette and Keegan Wehwein.
The Eagles host Everett Monday afternoon (4) in a non-conference clash at Cronin Stadium.
Danvers 0, Swampscott 0
At Danvers, the Falcons and Big Blue played to a scoreless tie in a Northeastern Conference clash.
Swampscott hosts Revere Tuesday afternoon (4) at Blocksidge Field.
VOLLEYBALL
Pope John 3, St. Mary’s 1
At Conigliaro Gymnasium, the Spartans won the third set after falling behind 2-0 but couldn’t mount the comeback. Pope John won the fourth set to clinch the victory.
St. Mary’s hopes to bounce back with a win Tuesday (5) when the Spartans host Catholic Central League rival Bishop Fenwick.
