LYNN — The Winthrop girls lacrosse team came to play Monday.
The No. 12 Vikings got out to an early lead and held on to shock No. 5 St. Mary’s with a 12-10 win in the Division 2 North first round at Manning Field.
Winthrop controlled the first 10 minutes, built a 3-0 lead and kept pace with the Spartans the rest of the game. Winthrop coach Ben Cimmino was glad to see the Vikings start on the right foot.
“I think conditioning is something that we put a focus on early in the season,” Cimmino said. “We’re all new to lacrosse here. It’s a new sport for Winthrop. We really rely on our girls’ athleticism. That’s something we have been doing all year is trying to get out to a fast start and use our legs.”
Leading the way for the Vikings were sisters Maura and Jenna Dorr. Maura controlled the faceoff circle and scored four goals while Jenna stepped on the defensive end to help contain St. Mary’s Codi Butt.
“They absolutely played great,” Cimmino said. “Maura has gotten better and better all season on the draw. Her sister Jenna is on the wing with her and played well too. Sonedia Dahlquist, Kiaya Rodriguez, Carolyn Kinsella they all get up there on the wing as well. That unit is always battling for the ball. That’s turned this season around for us.”
Emma Carleton scored four goals and added a pair of assists. Mia Martucci scored three goals and Emma Turner scored one. Emma Soch made nine saves.
Mady Hentosh led the Spartans with five goals. Codi Butt scored three, while Megan Parthum added two. Lauren Vaccaro did her best to keep the Spartans in the game with 10 saves, but uncharacteristic mistakes cost St. Mary’s.
“Winthrop did a great job,” Spartans coach K.C. Butt said. “And everything went wrong for us. It’s unfortunate because we are a much better team than the way we played. We couldn’t pick up ground balls, couldn’t make passes, just nothing worked for us. It wasn’t just one or two players it was everyone.”
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to get on the attack. Vaccaro made five saves, including two on Winthrop corner chances, to keep the game scoreless. The Vikings finally cashed in when Carleton grabbed a rebound and score to put Winthrop ahead 1-0.
Winthrop followed with two more goals from Martucci and Maura Dorr in a four-minute span to build a 3-0 lead.
Hentosh got the Spartans on the board with a goal on a corner opportunity and Butt added another goal just 10 seconds later to cut the Vikings’ lead to 3-2.
A Spartans penalty allowed Winthrop to take back the momentum. The Vikings scored twice on the man advantage with goals from Maura Dorr and Martucci to stretch their lead to 5-2.
Midway through the first the Spartans capitalized on a Winthrop penalty with a pair of goals from Hentosh to cut the Winthrop lead to one. But Winthrop added two more goals from Turner and Carleton to go ahead 7-4. Butt added a late goal to cut the Winthrop lead to 7-5 before the break.
Both teams traded goals to start the second half. Hentosh scored a quick goal with St. Mary’s on a man advantage but Maura Dorr answered with a shorthanded goal to put Winthrop ahead 8-6. Next, Carleton and Parthum traded goals before Maura Dorr scored to give the Vikings a 10-7 lead with 17 minutes left.
The Spartans went on their biggest run in the next five minutes. Parthum, Hentosh and Butt combined to score three straight goals and tie the game at 10-10 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Another Winthrop penalty gave the Spartans a man advantage but they couldn’t capitalize. Carleton added a huge goal with Winthrop a man down to put the Vikings ahead 11-10.
From there the Vikings ate away the clock with a few long possessions. Martucci added an insurance goal with just under four minutes to play and the Vikings defense held on for the 12-10 win.
St. Mary’s ends the season at 14-5.
“I can say this is by far the best group I’ve seen for our team,” she said. “My seniors, Codi was at 130 goals this year. That’s a high for her. Mady was up around 60 goals, that’s her highest. Honestly I’m proud because we had new kids step on the field that had never played and they were awesome.”
Winthrop (13-7) plays the winner of No. 13 Lowell Catholic at No. 4 Manchester Essex.