LYNNFIELD — The St. Mary’s and Lynnfield boys soccer teams battled to a 1-1 tie Saturday afternoon at breezy Pioneer Stadium. Both teams were undermanned, but that didn’t adversely impact a tournament-atmosphere intensity that defined the interdivisional contest from start to finish.
“I thought St. Mary’s was great. I expected them to be very good and they were,” Pioneers’ coach Brent Munroe said. “They played the right way and they played well and were a great team. I thought we had a really good, hard-fought game and I’m happy that we played them. Today’s game had a real tournament feel to it, and that will definitely help get us ready for the tournament.”
All of the scoring took place in a two-minute span in the second half.
St. Mary’s Kaya Jackson scored his 20th goal of the season on a free kick from about 45 yards with 25:51 to play.
“He’s are top scorer and has been doing that for us all year,” Spartans’ co-head coach Shane McCarran said.
About a minute later, senior captain Brendan Sokop of the Pioneers muscled his way into the box and was taken down, giving the Pioneers a penalty kick. Joel Anthony drilled the kick low and left, just inside the post, to tie things up with 24:09 left (1-1).
“Joel was terrific today and Brendan also had a great game,” Munroe said. “Brendan had to play several different positions after Dhimitri (Dono) was injured. He was very good. Alessandro Reimondi played very well and outside mid Tyler Maddocks, who played up top today, did a good job controlling the ball.”
St. Mary’s co-head coach Eddie Mercy Kisakye said the biggest takeaway from the game is that the players need to stick to their game plan “regardless of what the score looks like.”
“I think we started to panic when they tied the game up, but I want to communicate this to my team that in moments of adversity, we can’t deviate from our game plan. Every time we were patient, we looked dangerous,” he said. “They put in great effort today, so I am proud of them for that.”
Munroe felt Lynnfield held a “slight advantage” in the first half, but the second half belonged to St. Mary’s with the Pioneers struggling to advance into enemy territory.
“They had a pretty significant advantage in the second half. They kind of took it to us and constantly had pressure on us,” Munroe said. “But, we did our best. We did get outplayed by St. Mary’s, which is a very good team, so we were very happy with the tie.”
McCarran agreed with Munroe’s assessment.
“The first half was back and forth and I was disappointed the boys weren’t possessing. It was more of a kickball game at times,” he said. “But we managed to settle down in the second half and did a good job finding our targets a little more in transition.”
McCarran said defenders Brody McCarran and Cade Cornell played well.
“They’ve been our core for us all year,” McCarran said. “We pride ourselves on defense.”
Jackson and Medhi Khemmich were strong offensively, according to Kisakye.
“Kaya had a phenomenal game and Medhi Khemmich played well outside,” he said.
The Pioneers finished the season 14-2-2. As of Oct. 27, they ranked third in the Division IV Power Rankings. A top-four ranking guarantees the Pioneers home-field advantage in the tournament until the semifinals.
What do they need to do to make a deep run?
“You have to basically shut people out or maybe give up one goal and create enough chances,” Munroe said. “We really have just the one goal-scorer in Dillon Reilly (20 goals, 13 assists in 15 games), so we don’t really have to generate a lot of chances. It’s just a numbers game. Our keys to winning are defending, playing hard in the midfield, and getting timely goals and, whoever gets them, we don’t care. There are a lot of good teams in Division IV (last year, they were in Division 3), but we have a real good chance if we can do that.”
The Spartans (12-2-3) are ranked No. 15 in the Division III Power Rankings, which should give them a home game in the tournament, McCarran said. They close out the season Monday against Swampscott at Manning Field.
“Swampscott is seventh in Division III, so that will be like a tournament game for us,” McCarran said. “We’re going to bring it every game because we have eight seniors who really want it.”
