LYNN — It was the first game of the season for both the Lynn Classical and Lynn Tech girls soccer teams. The Lady Rams (1-0) started and finished the game strong en route to a 7-0 win to advance to the Lynn City Championship game on Saturday.
Classical started with the opening kick and 21 seconds into the action, found itself up 1-0 thanks to a darting run from senior captain Mea Papazoglou (2 goals, assist), who started off her senior year with a bang.
Last season, Papazoglou had to play goalie due to an injury to former Lady Ram Lauren Wilson. Now, she’s back leading the line and converting chances.
“I’m so happy to see her back in her natural position. Twenty seconds into her senior season to score a goal. I’m very happy for her,” said Classical coach Jessica Gambale. “It meant a lot for the whole team last year. I’m happy she got her senior season back where she belongs.”
Classical dominated possession, but couldn’t tuck an insurance goal or two. That said, it was mostly positive for Gambale.
“It was really nice to see what we were working on in practice get executed in the game today. Drills we’ve been running, working on communicating, and every girl out there was talking today,” she said.
Classical forced Lynn Tech goalie Jireilis De Jesus to make 12 first-half saves. Tigers’ head coach JD Perry praised her unselfishness.
“She played soccer for the first time last season. She never played goalie. She stepped in a few times during practice, but by and large, not a goalie,” Perry said. “She knows she’s got great hand-eye coordination and a good sense of the game. It wasn’t really a lack of effort by everybody else in front of her on our team, so much as a lack of combination of skill and having gelled as a team.”
Classical eventually found that insurance goal late in the first half, as freshman Mia Duncan won a ball back and rifled a shot from 13 yards out, beating De Jesus to give the Rams a 2-0 cushion.
“Mia Duncan with two goals to start off her varsity career — love to see it,” Gambale said.
Moments later, it was Papazoglou again to give Classical a 3-0 lead right before halftime.
“It’s great to see you don’t have just one person you need to be worried about offensively. We’ve got a whole crew of girls on offense and in the midfield who can score and you need to be worried about our defenders carrying the ball up. It’s nice when you don’t have to just rely on one player.”
In the second half, it was more of the same as Classical continued to create chances and convert them.
The Tigers did create a few chances late in the game as speedster Cindy De Leon narrowly missed after a blazing run from defense to attack.
“Cindy De Leon has been a standout since the eighth grade for this team. It was great to see her back. She missed some time due to her traveling, but she’s back and didn’t miss a beat,” Perry said.
Perry knows it’s only game one and believes that with time, his team will gel. He was glad to see glimpses of what his team has been practicing.
“That’s what we’ve been preaching in practice: to use the full breadth of the field as well as length, and work the sides. That was one thing that I and the coaching staff brought to everyone’s attention. We noticed the other team was moving the ball very well using all of the field,” Perry said. “We needed to put more pressure on them… It was nice for us to see a little development from the full length of the field.”
Classical will face St. Mary’s on Saturday in the Lynn City Championship. Tech will face English in the consolation game on the same day (times TBD).
Goal-scorers
Duncan: 2
Papazoglou: 2
Gianna Parker: 2
Arianna Martinez: 1
