LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys soccer team celebrated senior night with a dominating 6-0 victory over Lowell Catholic Monday night at Manning Field.
After a slow start led to a 5-2 loss to a strong Concord-Carlisle opponent Sunday, Spartans head coach Mike D’Agostino was happy to see his team bounce back.
“We just didn’t start the game off strong Sunday but tonight it was great to see the seniors play well,” D’Agostino said. “Everyone got to play today. It’s always great to see all 34 kids play and get time on the field. It was a great win. It’s going to bring us to a 15-2-2 overall record and now we focus on our playoff hopes.”
The game was highlighted by the solid play of several seniors for St. Marys. Seniors Alex Nguyen and Ryan Fraher got their first goals of the season.
“We had two seniors get their first goal and a first assist which is huge,” D’Agostino said. “Alex got his first goal, Dante Cattanco got his first assist and Ryan Fraher got his first varsity goal which is great. A bunch of seniors and a bunch of different people scored goals today so it’s great to see the diversity in the offensive talent.
“It’s a good program,” D’Agostino added. “Some of these kids have been with me for seven years and that’s great. Thiago DeOliveira and Olushola George have been here for seven years along with Matt Connolly. It’s great to see them produce and they seemed to enjoy it.”
The Spartans got off to a fast start, scoring their first goal less than five minutes into the game. Nguyen stole possession for a Lowell Catholic defender and slipped a shot past the goalkeeper to put St. Mary’s ahead 1-0.
Less than one minute later, Cattanco dished a nice pass to George who ripped a shot that found the back of the net to extend the Spartans lead to 2-0.
Joseph Thongsythavong took over for the Spartans later in the first half. Thongsythavong added two goals that were separated by around five minutes to put St. Mary’s ahead 4-0.
St. Mary’s added another goal in the first half, this time off of a nice shot in the box by Fraher to give the Spartans a 5-0 lead at half time.
DeOliveira added a goal in the second half to cap off the Senior class’ great performance with a 6-0 victory.
With the regular season coming to a close, the Spartans now shift their focus to the playoffs.
“The mindset going in is just to prepare and come out strong for every game we play,” D’Agostino said. “We want to take it one game and one half at a time which has always been our focus. Play as one family, but really we are trying to come out with strong preparation and play our style of soccer. We are starting to get healthy which is great. The passing is good and we are working on finishing and adjusting a few things.”
