AYER — On Nov. 18 of last year, Lynnfield’s boys soccer team captured the Division 4 state championship. Fast forward a year, and the Pioneers are back in the state title game after a 1-0 win over No. 14 Frontier Regional Tuesday night.
“I just feel fortunate,” said Lynnfield coach Brent Munroe. “There are so many things that have to go right and they went right again this year. There’s a lot of fortune that goes into it and I just feel lucky to be back.”
Talk about tightly-contested, with both defenses making it hard to find gaps. After a hard-fought first half, this one was scoreless.
Jumping to the second half, Lynnfield’s Joel Anthony started to demand the ball and make crisp, direct plays. Of all of the plays he made, none were bigger than his through ball to senior Dillon Reilly in the 55th minute.
Anthony found a sprinting Reilly and the superstar striker took one touch to get past his defender. From there, Reilly’s second touch found the back of the net to give Lynnfield a 1-0 lead.
A picture-perfect example of ‘defense to offense,’ Munroe loved every aspect of the goal.
“The goal was fantastic,” he said. “Charlie Morgan won the ball back and made a terrific clearance to Joel, who had a great first touch that put them under pressure right away. He found Dillon Reilly through and then Dillon did the rest. It started from the back and it was two awesome plays to get it to Dillon.”
Truth be told, Reilly had just one intention when he received the ball.
“Just finish and end this,” Reilly said. “It was one heck of a pass from Joel.”
Munroe praised Anthony for his creativity, and for stepping up when Matt Reinold took a knock early in the game.
“Joel, all day, was great. Matt got dinged up early and we didn’t have the play that we usually get out of him,” Munroe said. “Joel stepped up and gave us play all game. He drew a couple of corners and almost all of our chances came from his side.”
After Lynnfield took its lead, the Pioneers locked in defensively. Despite some nervy corners, they did enough to keep the Red Hawks at bay.
“They had four corners at the end and it was scaring me. They’re a tough group and very good in the air, which made the corners even more scary,” Munroe said. “Our kids fought in the air, but they were big and strong.”
After the final whistle blew, Munroe credited Frontier Regional for an incredibly strong effort.
“This was such an even game with only a couple of chances for each team – two teams that were really defending hard and clean,” he said. “They’re a really classy group. I was thoroughly impressed with them.”
But in tight games – ones in which you just need a breakthrough – having someone like Reilly can make all the difference. He broke his navicular bone at the start of the season and, according to his doctors, wasn’t supposed to play this year.
“It feels amazing. I was told I wasn’t going to play this whole year, so to be able to get back a month early and get the maximum out of games with my brothers feels amazing,” Reilly said. “We (Reilly and family) did everything that we could to get back out there. We threw the kitchen sink at it. We did everything the doctors recommended and just hoped to get good news and we eventually did.”
Although it’s great to have Reilly back, Munroe believes the team grew in his absence because other players had to step up.
“That’s what he does. He gets the ball and he scores,” Munroe said. “He’s fantastic, but we grew a lot as a team when he was out and became more dangerous. Now that he’s back, although not fully back, he’s done enough to help us score goals.”
Now, the Pioneers are back in the state championship game. It will be played Saturday at Curry College with first touch set for 12:45 p.m. against top-ranked Cohasset.
