LYNNFIELD — With Lynnfield’s boys soccer team ready to take the field on Aug. 21, the Pioneers are looking to build upon the success of last season. Lynnfield finished the regular season 12-3-3 with two of its losses coming against Newburyport, the eventual state champions.
Luckily for the Pioneers, they are returning a lot of the team’s key members despite losing a few seniors like Alex Gentile, who finished second on the team in goals.
“He was our top player last year,” head coach Brent Munroe said. “He’ll be a big miss. He had 21 goals last year as a center mid. Alex was a good player for four years and last year he took a huge leap forward. I thought he was as good as anyone we saw last year.”
Munroe mentioned he has a few players who will try and fill the void left by Gentile.
“We have a sophomore named Rocco Scenna who is a center mid who’s going to be a good player for us,” Munroe said. “He started a bit last year and he’ll be one of the players to fill in for Alex.”
In addition to Scenna, Munroe mentioned he has talented midfielders who he believes will have a big year in Joel Anthony, Matt Reinold, and Dhimitri Dono.
“Joel Anthony started every game for us last year as a sophomore. Matt Reinold, who broke his arm last year, is a very good player who will be back,” Munroe said. “Dhimitri Dono is a captain for us who is also returning.”
Another key player for the Pioneers this year will be Dillon Reilly, who led the Cape Ann League in scoring, and returning goalie Kellen Cardinal.
“We have a kid up front in Dillon Reilly who led our league in scoring with 23 goals as a sophomore. He’s a very good player and scored important goals for us,” Munroe said. “I expect him to be as good as anyone in our league up front.”
“Kellen returns after a strong season with us last year, I believe he’s going to have a great season,” Munroe added.
When asked what Munroe thinks the team will need to take the next step, he mentioned the team needs to make up for the physicality that it lost.
“What we did lose last year (with the seniors graduating) are physical ball winners,” Munroe said. “That’s the part I think our group will need to step into. We have some good skill players, but it’s the physicality that they’ll need to gain.”
The Pioneers have been working hard this offseason to make a deep run in the state tournament.
“We have really high goals. The guys pushed themselves hard this summer,” Munroe said. “Newburyport won the state championship last year and they were a little better than us. We’re working hard to make sure we’re as good as we can be by the time November hits.”
To help get ready for the season Munroe scheduled four scrimmages against various teams to get a good look at his team. The Pioneers will face St. John’s Prep, Swampscott, Marblehead, and Wilmington.
“The first is against St. John’s Prep so I don’t expect that to be too easy,” Munroe said. “I hope our defense holds up. They’ll test us defensively for sure. We hope to be organized against them.”
“We then play Marblehead and Swampscott after that, which are two good programs. We hope to be on the ball a fair amount against them and test our offense,” Munroe said. “We then end with Wilmington who are always a tough team. These scrimmages really go a long way.”
Munroe said he and the team can’t wait for the season to start and have “extra motivation” to improve on the success of last year.
“We’re really excited to get going. I’m excited every year around this time,” Munroe said. “I think we exceeded even our own expectations last year. We were right there with the best teams and we beat everyone else. This year we’re extra motivated.”
