LYNN — The Classical girls soccer team dominated play against cross-town rival English, earning a 5-0 win at Manning Field Monday night.
With the win the Rams (9-7-1) have earned enough points for a spot in the state tournament.
“To get into the playoffs on senior night that’s special,” Classical coach Mark Ierardi said. “We hit a bit of a skid down the stretch, had trouble scoring, had some injuries, but this team hung tough. They didn’t give up. They just kept fighting and now we are in the playoffs. It’s what we have been shooting for all year.
“The excitement is a little bit dampered because one of my captains (Abigail Ierardi) and she’s also my niece, went down with an injury tonight,” Ierardi added. “I’m a little bit upset about that but that doesn’t take the shine off of what we accomplished.”
The Rams were led on offense by Olivia Pedro who had three goals. Chloe Kebreau and Ciara Collins each had one goal for Classical.
“She had a great night,” Ierardi said of Pedro. “She’s one of our captains and has been good with her corners all year. Initially we moved her to striker, but she wasn’t getting much there so eventually we moved her to center midfield because she has a really nice shot.”
The Bulldogs couldn’t get anything going offensively and made far too many mistakes for the Rams to capitalize on.
“We got outplayed,” Lynn English coach Ed McNeil said. “They’re a better team than we are and they needed the game to make the tournament. We just made it easy for them in the first half. We gave them 10 corner kicks and four free kicks.
“They controlled the play and they defended our star player Melissa Zayas well,” McNeil said. “I tip my hat, this is a good Classical team. Mark and Greg Ierardi do a really good job over there.”
Classical got on the offensive early with plenty of chances before finding the back of the net 10 minutes into the game. Pedro placed a bending corner kick in front of the goal and the shot bounced off of a Bulldog defender to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.
Less than eight minutes later another Bulldog mistake gave Kebreau a free kick just outside the box. Kebreau ripped a beautiful shot into the top right corner to extend Classical’s lead to 2-0.
With just around 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Pedro added her second goal of the game. Once again on a corner kick, Pedro ripped a bending shot that found its way untouched into the net to give Classical a 3-0 lead at half.
The second half was more of the same. Pedro slipped by a few English defenders and added her third goal of the night with help from a nice assist by Lexi Ferraro to put the Rams ahead 4-0.
With just a few minutes left to play, Collins added a goal on a penalty kick to put the game well out of reached at 5-0 for Classical.
“I was glad some girls that normally wouldn’t see the field got some excellent playing time,” Ierardi said. “It was a good night all around the injury aside. The recipe for success has always been to play good defense and timely scoring so we will try to continue that in the tournament.”
