PEABODY — The St. Mary’s soccer teams were able to celebrate their seniors over the weekend, albeit not on their home field. With Manning Field closed to competition due to COVID-19, the Spartans boys and girls took the field at rival Bishop Fenwick’s Donaldson Stadium Saturday morning to honor its seniors.
During the break between games, the St. Mary’s boys and girls seniors took the field to be honored for their contributions to the program. Those honored included the boys seniors — captain Eduardo Toranzo, captain Jackson Nickolau, Zach Barden and Kevin Espino.
“These seniors have been huge for us, especially this year under such strange circumstances,” said St. Mary’s boys soccer coach Mike D’Agostino. “They’ve given me everything they’ve got for the past four years and I can’t thank them enough for it. I couldn’t imagine having to go through a season like this as a senior, and these guys have really shown what great leaders they are. I wish them the best of luck in the future.”
The girls seniors — captain Eliza Brown, captain Susannah Cornell, captain Julia Nickolau, Maria Pereira and Zoe Bozarjian — were also honored during the celebration.
“With the year we’ve had this season, their leadership has been more important than ever,” said St. Mary’s girls soccer coach Jim Foley. “They were a huge help even when we didn’t know we’d be having a season. They organized workouts, kept the girls in touch and really acted like true leaders. I’m incredibly proud of all of them.”
As for the game action on Saturday, the Spartans split their matchups against St. Joseph’s Prep — with the girls notching a commanding 7-0 victory and the boys falling by a score of 3-1.
The girls came right out and started laying it on early, scoring just nine minutes into the game on a tally from Brooke Moloney. The Spartans rolled from there, scoring two more times to take a 3-0 lead into halftime before running away with the game in the second half.
“We’ve been up and down at times this year, but we really came out firing early on in this one,” said Foley. “The girls were able to jump ahead early and then we used our defensive prowess to ride that lead all the way to a win.”
Julia Nickolau led the way for St. Mary’s with two goals, while Sophie Skabeikis, Maria Pereira, Brooke Moloney and Bre Moloney each scored one goal. Even goalkeeper Eliza Brown, who earned the shutout in net, notched a goal in the win.
Next up for the St. Mary’s girls (4-4-2) will be a road matchup against Essex Tech Monday evening (6).
“I think the key, as it has been all year, is to maintain consistency out there,” said Foley. “We’ve got a big week of games coming up, so hopefully we can take this momentum and use it going forward.”
As for the boys, the Spartans were the victim of three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to fall to St. Joseph’s Prep.
“We had our opportunities throughout the game, but we just couldn’t capitalize on them,” said D’Agostino. “On the other end, we played really well defensively but St. Joseph’s was able to take advantage of a couple of mistakes on our end, and that ended up being the difference.”
Ryan Fraher scored the lone goal for the Spartans in defeat, while Barden had one assist. Toranzo and Jackson Nickolau also played well in the loss.
The St. Mary’s boys (4-5-1) travel to Essex Tech Monday afternoon (4).
