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St. Mary’s Maggie Flaherty and the Spartans beat Arlington Catholic for the first time in Flaherty’s four years with the lacrosse team.
By SCOT COOPER
LYNN — St. Mary’s senior attacker Maggie Flaherty scored four goals in a convincing 10-5 girls lacrosse win over Arlington Catholic Saturday at Manning Field.
Not only was it a win, but it was a milestone for Flaherty. This was the first time in her four-year career at St. Mary’s that the Spartans have defeated the Cougars.
“This game was really exciting for three reasons, first of all, this was our first league win, we beat AC for the first time in my four years here, and we evened our record at 3-3,” Flaherty said. “We really settled down, especially in the second half, we ran our plays, and played well on offense and defense.”
K.C. Butt, the Spartans’ first-year coach, said that the offensive outburst was nice, taking a 5-4 lead at halftime. St. Mary’s then came out in the second half and outscored the Cougars 5-1.
Butt said the win was also keyed by solid defense, led by senior Taylor Capozzi, Liz Weisse and goalie Brittany McPherson. Capozzi said it was great to score 10 goals and knock off a league foe in the process.
“I thought we played a very good game, especially on offense, Brittany played very good in the net, and we had a good game by the offense,” Capozzi said. “It really was a strong team effort today, everyone played well on our team. Our communication was excellent and we really didn’t give them many scoring opportunities.”
McPherson had six saves in the first half and stopped seven of eight shots in the second half. The slim lead to start the second half quickly became 9-4 and St. Mary’s was on the way to their third win.
The Cougars made it 9-5 with 3:51 left. But Flaherty nixed any comeback hopes, burying her fourth of the game a minute later. The Spartans ran out the clock, controlling the ball in the AC end until the final whistle.
In addition to Flaherty’s big game up front, freshman Codi Butt had three goals and two assists. Weisse had a goal and four assists. The winners also picked up a goal each from Kayla Magwood and Sophya Fucchione.
Codi Butt said that it was good to get a win with so many players contributing.
“We played really hard, and we did a good job on both offense and defense,” she said. “That’s the way we need to play every game.”
The coach reiterated that it starts on the defensive end and that leads to chances on offense. The team needs to play well on all areas of the field after moving to .500, the coach added.
“This is a great win, as a first year coach I couldn’t be happier for the team with this win,” the coach said. “I told the girls this week we had to step it up on offense and defense in this game and they certainly did that.”