LYNN — The Saugus boys lacrosse team coasted to a much-needed victory with a 13-5 win over Lynn Thursday at Manning Field.
After losing four of their last five games, Sachems coach Rob Suzzarella was happy to see his team get back in the win column.
“We’re almost back on track,” Scuzzarella said. “A couple more conference games coming up, this is a big stretch for us. We’ve had one win out of our last five games before (Thursday) . It’s nice to get a win after a tough stretch.”
Attackman Dom Paolo led the way for Saugus with six goals while defenseman Jake Morgante scored twice. Mario Desimone, Ryan Pugh, Billy MacArthur, Manny Alvarez-Segee and CJ Femino each had one goal.
With a sizeable lead, Saugus plugged in some young players, including eighth-graders Alvarez-Segee, Femino, and Jake McLaughlin. Desimone, who is also Saugus’ backup goalkeeper, was in net for the second half and made a pair of saves.
“It was good to get those different players in and I’m sure they had a blast,” Scuzzarella said. “CJ had his first career goal and Manny scored but that’s not his first. I’m excited for them. They come and they work hard every day just like everyone else. It’s nice to see that hard work pays off.
“Mario’s an attackman but he’s also our backup goalie,” Scuzarella said. “He played a lot at Medford as well. He’s been playing a lot lately. We didn’t have another goalie so he volunteered. It’s nice to get him in there. He’s a junior too like our starter Derek (Martineau). If anything happens it’s good to have two guys with experience.”
The Jets fell to 2-7 on the season but showed improvement against a Saugus team they lost to 12-2 earlier in the season.
“We’re going in the right direction,” Lynn coach Peter Pappagianopoulos said. “We were short a couple guys too which didn’t help our cause. But we played a bad first half defensively. We stuck with it, but if the first half doesn’t happen like that it’s a competitive game. We dug ourselves too big of a hole. We don’t score goals well enough to come back from that.”
Brian Clougherty led the way with three goals while Sam Ennis added a pair of scores.
“Brian at midfield, that’s a tiring position,” Pappagianopoulos said. “He probably sat for a total of a minute for the entire game. He works hard. He scores and he ran a 48-minute game without looking for a substitute. Him and Sam played well. They’re great kids and they work hard.” Saugus got off to an early lead with Paolo taking the opening faceoff and scoring 18 seconds in to put the Sachems ahead 1-0.
Lynn responded after a save by Owen Downey, taking advantage of a Saugus turnover with a goal from Ennis to tie the game at 1-1.
But from there it was all Saugus. Paolo ripped off three straight goals to give the Sachems a 4-1 lead early in the second quarter. Less than a minute later Chris Benoit dished an assist on a goal from Desimone and Paolo added another pair of goals to stretch the lead to 7-1. With 4:16 remaining in the first half, Morgante went on the offensive and scored to cap the run and give the Sachems a 8-1 lead.
Lynn got back on the board before the break. Ennis made a few nice moves to beat a pair of defenders and ripped a shot that found the back of the net to cut the Saugus lead to 8-2.
Pugh got Saugus started in the second half with an early goal to bump the Sachems lead up to 9-2.
Clougherty responded with a pair of goals later in the third quarter to cut the Sachems lead to 9-4. MacArthur added his first goal late in the third but Cloughtery scored again to cut the lead to 10-5.
That was as close as Lynn would get. Morgante added another goal midway through the fourth quarter and Alvarez-Segee and Femino each scored late goals to seal the win for Saugus.
Both teams are back on the field Monday. Saugus will hope to stay in the win column on the road at Malden (4) while the Jets host Winthrop (5).
