PHOTO BY: BOB ROCHE.
Tech’s Damaris Reyes stays close to Notre Dame’s Cofi Bradey.
By Mike Alongi
LYNN — The Lynn Tech girls soccer team continues to improve over the course of the 2016 season, but it wasn’t enough to get a win on Thursday night as the Tigers fell to the Academy of Notre Dame Lancers, 5-0, at Manning Field.
“We’re still working on a lot of things,” said Tech coach Bruce Diver. “What we did today was play with a little more aggressiveness, which our team doesn’t usually have, and we did some good things. We’re still growing.”
Tech goalkeeper Coral Gonzalez had a huge game in net despite the loss, notching 11 saves on the night. Notre Dame goalie Sam Adamczyk only needed one save to record the shutout for her team.
Mya Wilson was the top scorer for the Lancers with a goal and three assists. Tori Bradley, Emma Paxton, Keely Ford and Linsey Former each scored one goal.
The first half was an evenly matched battle for the most part, with both teams fighting for possession over the course of the first 32 minutes. Then, with about seven and a half minutes left in the half, Notre Dame started to get it going around the net. After a big battle in the box, a Notre Dame player emerged and took a shot on net, which was stopped by Gonzalez. But the ball deflected right onto Bradley’s foot, and she let loose a perfectly placed cannon of a kick into the top-right corner of the net to give the Lancers a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers rebounded nicely after the goal, but still couldn’t get anything going offensively. The first half ended with the Lancers leading 1-0.
The tone changed in the second half, and Notre Dame turned it on offensively. Within the first three minutes, Wilson broke into the box and sent a perfect cross from right to left to a waiting Paxton, who headed it into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Less than 10 minutes later, Wilson dealt out another perfect cross, this time from left to right, onto the foot of Former, who buried it for a three-goal lead.
But Wilson wasn’t done there. She was awarded a free kick with about 21 minutes left and she sent a rocket into the back of the net. With a little over eight minutes left, she sent yet another perfect cross into the middle, this time to Ford, who finished the play to give the Lancers the 5-0 win.
As for the Tigers (2-9-2), Diver continues to see progress with his young team.
“It was good that we got to get a lot of the younger players into the game at the end, because we’re looking to keep building our team up. I think all-in-all, we did really well out there. We keep making improvements every day.”
The Tigers have a quick turnaround with a game on the road in Medford at St. Clement this afternoon.