LYNN — As the regular season turns its final corner, St. Mary’s boys soccer team (9-2-4) faced a solid test in Archbishop Williams (9-5-2) Wednesday evening. In the end, the Spartans got the job done in a 2-0 final.
Goalie Cian LeVasseur, who registered another shutout, made a few key saves early. His teammate, Hakeem Akande, was all over the field creating opportunities.
“I think we showed who the better team was from the first minute and replicated the 2-0 score from the first time we played these guys,” said first-year St. Mary’s coach Dan Garcia.
Anthony Gomez got the goal-scoring party started, taking the ball himself before slotting one home with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
St. Mary’s held its 1-0 lead through halftime, but that was before Mauricio Marin provided insurance for a 2-0 cushion. From there, the hosts protected the ball and preserved the shutout.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries,” Garcia said. “Even in this game, we were missing two key players in the midfield for us.”
The Spartans clinched second place in the Catholic Central League with the win.
“It sucks to come in second for the Catholic Conference this year, but we played against a good Feehan team early on and we had some injuries, so we will have to play them again to see how the league would have ended up…” Garcia said.
Garcia had a message for his team after Wednesday’s game.
“We have come off two ties against two top-10 teams in the state in Division 1 and we are starting to show that we are who we think we are,” he said.
The Spartans are back in action this Friday when they visit Revere at 7 p.m.
Owen Finn is a student at Endicott College studying journalism
