SAUGUS — The Saugus girls soccer team ended its regular season on a high note Tuesday afternoon, blanking Northeastern Conference foe Lynn Classical, 4-0, at Anna Parker Field. The Sachems scored all of their goals in the first half on the muddy, rain-soaked field.
“It’s definitely a good way to end the season with a good win,” said Saugus coach Chris Coviello. “Obviously the field wasn’t in great shape and Classical was battling some injuries, but I thought it was a good opportunity for both teams to get some younger players into the game and get some experience as we move into the tournament season.”
The Sachems were led by Shaylin Groark, who scored two goals. Allison LeBlanc and Jeimmy Monroy Rodrigus each added one goal, while Cailey MaCeachern and Jess Carter each had one assist.
For the Rams, who have been hit pretty hard by the injury bug in recent weeks, Tuesday’s game was about survival more than anything else.
“We were playing with a lot of backups and junior varsity players today because of all our injuries, and we were basically just trying to get through it with as many girls staying healthy as possible,” said Classical coach Mark Ierardi. “It was a good opportunity for the younger girls to get some playing time.”
Things got going for the Sachems early and often in the first half. After controlling possession and pace of play through the first several minutes, Saugus finally broke through and scored when Carter sent a pass into the box to a waiting Groark, who promptly found the back of the net to make it 1-0.
Despite not really losing possession for the majority of the first half, it still took the Sachems another 13 minutes before finding the back of the net again. This time it was LeBlanc, who took possession of the ball near midfield before moving up and letting loose a shot from about 25 yards out that zoomed past the Classical goalkeeper for the 2-0 lead.
Saugus got another run at the net with about 10 minutes remaining. After a hard shot from the left side was knocked away by Classical’s goalkeeper, Groark found herself in the perfect position to knock home the rebound. She did just that, wasting no time to make it a 3-0 Saugus lead.
The fourth goal of the game came with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first half. MaCeachern got the ball at midfield and started a run to the net for the Sachems, eventually sending a perfect slip pass ahead to Monroy Rodrigus. She took it from there, weaving through a couple of defenders and burying a one-on-one chance to make it 4-0.
Saugus mainly played “keep away” to kill the clock in the second half, although Classical did get a number of scoring chances spread throughout the rest of the game.
Now that the regular season is wrapped up, Saugus (15-2-1) will begin to prepare for tournament play.
“We’ve been playing well over the past few weeks, so it’s definitely good timing,” said Coviello. “We had a bad defensive stretch for a time but we’ve cleaned that up, and I think we’ve started to take much better shots on goal recently. So we’ll continue to work on those things and try to be as prepared as possible come tournament time.”
Classical (9-8-1) will also begin its tournament preparations, with the No. 1 goal above all else being getting healthy by the first game.
“Getting healthy is the priority right now,” Ierardi said. “We have a couple girls who we’re not sure if they’ll be ready, so we’ll see. But we’ll continue to do what got us here, and that’s play great defense and try to score enough goals to win.”