LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls lacrosse team kept it rolling Monday afternoon, scoring early and often in a 18-13 win over St. Joseph’s Prep at Manning Field. The win came on Senior Day, where the Spartans honored their senior class of Codi Butt, Mady Hentosh, Sherly Feliz, Lauren Vaccaro, Kati Whitcomb, Nicole Callahan and Skylar Davis before the game.
“They’ve been a huge part of our success in the four years that I’ve been here,” St. Mary’s coach K.C. Butt said. “Codi and Mady have started for four years, Lauren came in her junior year and has been great in net for us, we’ve had other girls who just joined the team in the past couple years and they’ve been great as well. These girls all bring a lot to the table and they’re going to be missed.”
The Spartans also got a great performance from junior Megan Parthum, who scored four goals and logged one assist. She also earned her 100th career point in the win.
“Meg has had an amazing year this year, and she’s improved every year she’s been here,” said K.C. Butt. “She’s going to step right into a leadership role next year and it’ll be seamless.”
Codi Butt led the way with six goals and two assists, while Makayla McGrath had three goals and three assists. Molly Cummings had one goal and three assists, Hentosh had one goal and two assists, Jenna Chaplain had one goal and one assist, Callahan and Abby O’Connor scored one goal each had Kelsey Sullivan had three assists.
The Spartans came out with a bang in the opening minutes, going up 4-0 (two goals from Codi Butt and one goal each from Parthum and McGrath) in the first five minutes. St Joseph’s got one back when Katelynn O’Connor found the back of the net to make it 4-1, but St. Mary’s responded with two goals in less than 10 seconds (one each from Codi Butt and Parthum) to make it 6-1 in the blink of an eye.
Once again St. Joseph’s responded, this time with a goal from Katie Honan, but again the Spartans scored two straight to extend the lead. Honan scored again to make it 8-3 with just under 11 minutes to play, and that’s when St. Mary’s went on another run.
The Spartans scored four more goals (Codi Butt, Chaplain, Hentosh and Abby O’Connor) over the next seven minutes to take a commanding 12-3 lead. But just when the game looked over, St. Joseph’s went on a run of its own.
The Phoenix closed the half on a three-goal run, all three tallies coming from Katelynn O’Connor, to put the score at 12-6 going into the break. The run continued at the start of the second half.
After McGrath scored for St. Mary’s to make it 13-6, St. Joseph’s got three straight goals from McKenna Wech to make it a ballgame at 13-9 with under 20 minutes to play. But as quickly as the Phoenix got their rally going, the Spartans ended it. Hentosh, Codi Butt, Cummings and Parthum all scored over the next 10 minutes of play to basically put the game out of reach at 17-9. St. Joseph’s made up some ground with four goals in the final six minutes, but a goal from McGrath ended up sealing the win for St. Mary’s.
Now at 16-2 on the year, the Spartans are entering the home stretch of the season. Starting with a game against Salem Friday (5), St. Mary’s aims to start building momentum for the state tournament.
“We have Salem Friday, and then we close the season with games against Winchester and Austin Prep, two of the best teams we’ve played all year,” said K.C. Butt. “I think it’s a good way to end it because it’ll force us to play hard and it’ll prepare us for the kind of competition we’ll see in the tournament.”