LYNN — The Lynn Classical girls soccer team survived a late surge by Winthrop, earning a 4-3 win at Manning Field Tuesday night.
Fatima Girdia led the way with two goals for the Rams. Isabel McGaughey and Jayla Blevins each scored once.
“It was a very important win,” Classical coach Mark Ierardi said. “I told the girls that in order to get into the playoffs we need to start beating the teams that we didn’t beat last year. Winthrop’s one of those teams.”
Junior Alexandra Show filled in for injured goaltender Anna Flaherty and made several key stops for the Rams.
“(Alexandra’s) our backup goalie and that was her first varsity win,” Ierardi said. “She was tremendous today. We had a lot of girls who stepped up, Caprice Beato did tremendous at stopper and Jayla on the second goal as well. That was huge for us.”
Despite the loss, Winthrop sophomore Mayra Dorr played an amazing game with three goals.
“Right now, this might be her fourth hat trick on the season,” Vikings coach Tracey Martucci said. “She just knows how to work the ball. She’s a talented player and has around 16 or 17 goals now for the season.
“We were sleeping a little bit,” Martucci added of the loss. “We came out a little flat in the second half and they capitalized on it. (Classical) played a full game and we knew it was going to be a tough one. They give us a good game all the time now and we are pretty evenly matched.”
Classical took advantage of a scoring opportunity less than five minutes into the first half. Abigail Ierardi sent a perfect pass to McGaughey who finished in the box to put the Rams ahead 1-0.
The Vikings responded later in the half when they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Dorr ripped a perfectly placed shot into the right side of the Classical net to tie the score at 1-1.
For the first 30 minutes of the second half the Rams dominated play on their way to a 4-1 lead. Girdia added two goals, one on a perfect shot from the top of the box, and Blevins scored on a breakaway chance.
However, with just over 10 minutes to play Dorr carried the ball all the way into the box from midfield to score and added another goal four minutes later to cut the lead to 4-3 and get the Vikings back within reach.
Dorr found another scoring opportunity on a bizarre play where several Classical defenders thought the play was ruled dead.
“It was a lesson for us,” Ierardi said. “There was one segment where we thought that the referee had called the ball to us and we all stopped. The referee admitted after the game it was his mistake and had they scored it wouldn’t have counted. But I told the girls that notwithstanding you cannot relax, you have to play everything and make them blow the whistle.”
The only Ram to not give up on the play was Show, who made a diving save to prevent a goal whether it would’ve counted or not. That was all the fight Dorr and the Vikings had left as Classical held on to the 4-3 win.
The Rams (5-2-1) host Gloucester Thursday.
“They are going to be tough again,” Ierardi said of the Fishermen. “We didn’t beat them last year either. There hasn’t been one easy game all year and I kind of like that because mentally it’s going to make our girls mentally tougher and show them they have to play hard all the time.”