LYNN — Coach Tim Phelan carries two things on the back of his mind each time he brings his Austin Prep girls soccer team to play St. Mary’s at Manning Field.
On the one hand, the Lynn native enjoys returning to Manning each year. On the other hand, Phelan knows to expect a battle from the Spartans.
The Cougars rose to the occasion Wednesday night in a 3-1 win over the Spartans.
“St. Mary’s plays hard,” Phelan said. “It’s a good program, a good school and they’re well-coached. They always play hard. They’re a very good soccer team. Every game is like this — a battle from beginning to end. We were fortunate to come out on top.”
Gabby Vachon, Catherine Gallagher and Dani Rich netted a goal each for the Cougars.
Susannah Cornell scored St. Mary’s lone goal.
“It’s always a battle with Austin Prep,” Spartans coach Jim Foley said. “They’re in first place with Bishop Fenwick in the league for a reason. They’ve been the top dog the last couple years. We expected a battle. They have great players and they’re a great team.”
The Cougars struck first, and quickly, in this one. Austin Prep was granted a direct kick just over three minutes into the game. Spartans goalie Eliza Brown swatted the initial shot away but Vachon stumbled upon a free ball. With Brown out of her post, Vachon fired one in to put Austin Prep up 1-0.
“Eliza played it well, we just didn’t clear it out,” Foley said. “When a team like Austin Prep gets a call and they get a play, they capitalize. They did that twice. We were kind of on our heels a little bit. But they’re a good team and we expected a battle.”
After the early jitters, the Spartans settled down. It became a back-and-forth tilt through the rest of the opening half. St. Mary’s defense buckled down and Brown stepped up with a couple big saves but the offense couldn’t get much going. Austin Prep held its 1-0 lead at halftime.
“We’ve been scoring a lot but they’re good,” Foley said. “They shut down a lot of our stuff. We had to change formations to slow them down a bit. That kind of took our offense away. We tried to play more defensively. We had to generate against them and capitalize against them, and we didn’t have many opportunities.”
The back-and-forth carried into the second half. Then the momentum swayed back in Austin Prep’s favor when Gallagher netted her goal 11 minutes into the period.
Brown kept it a 2-0 game with a point blank save in the 64th minute. It paid dividends four minutes later when Cornell found the back of the net, closing the gap to 2-1.
Austin Prep put it away with Rich’s goal in the closing minutes.
“A lot of teams can get discouraged when another team scores a goal,” Phelan said. “They kept their focus and they continued to work hard. The hard work paid dividends in the end.
“St. Mary’s is a good team but so are we,” Phelan said. “St. Mary’s played well defensively. We really work on playing together as a team, both offensively and defensively. We played a solid game. On a different night, you never know what’s going to happen.”
St. Mary’s (5-2) travels to Archbishop Williams Monday (3:45). Austin Prep (7-1) hosts Fenwick Monday (4) in a crucial CCL showdown.