LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls soccer team brought their scoring boots on Thursday night at Manning Field, where they defeated Malden Catholic 4-0.
For head coach Jim Foley, it all comes down to the Spartans playing their own brand of soccer.
“When we play our game, we are pretty good,” said Foley.
The Spartans had an energetic start to the game, pressing a Malden Catholic team that struggled to get the ball out of its own half of the pitch for the first five minutes of the match.
Scoring came quickly for St. Mary’s, with the Skabeikis sisters combining for the first goal of the match in the 10th minute. Sophia Skabeikis, an eighth grader, connected with her sister, freshman Isabelle Skabeikis, who slotted the third shot on net of the game into the bottom left corner of the net.
All the Lancers could do was boot long balls in hopes of connecting with their teammates. It took Malden Catholic 25 minutes to get the ball in the final third of the field.
But the Spartans soon secured their second goal of the match, with freshman Brooke Moloney finding the back of the net in the 28th minute. St. Mary’s nearly scored its third goal of the half a couple of minutes later, but junior goalkeeper Marjorie Welton made a diving save to keep the deficit at two for the Lancers.
Sophia Skabeikis nearly joined her sister on the score sheet at the start of the second half with Malden Catholic’s goalkeeper failing to reign in the eighth grader’s free kick. But the Lancers cleared the ball out of the box. Skabeikis gained another advantageous opportunity, taking a free kick just outside the box, but her shot was sent straight into the wall in the 55th minute.
Malden Catholic had a much better showing in the second half, as it managed to test sophomore goalkeeper Kylie Kennison, but the Spartans were able to maintain their lead and the shutout.
Sophomore Isabelle Skabeikis wasn’t done as she found the back of the net in the 60th minute to tally her second goal of the evening; in the 67th minute, Moloney netted her second goal to make it 4-0.
Foley saw the second half as a showcase from St. Mary’s, which showed what it learned in previous matches.
“We talked about what we needed to do, how we needed to play, kind of like what we picked up from (Wednesday’s match) and carried in (what we learned Wednesday) into the second half where we put stuff together,” he said.
Skabeikis nearly tallied a hat trick while she was all alone on net, but Welton came off her line and made a great save to keep the score at 4-0 with less than 10 minutes left in the match.
St. Mary’s is now 5-4-2 this season and faces Bishop Stang at Manning Field on Saturday (10).
