LYNN — You never want to find yourself trailing out of the gate. The St. Mary’s boys soccer team overcame that hurdle in Monday’s Catholic Central League game against Williams, when the Spartans netted the game-tying goal less than a minute after Williams grabbed a swift lead. But the wheels fell off for the Spartans from there, as the Bishops finished with five unanswered goals in a 6-1 win at Manning Field.
“Williams is a fast team that worked the ball to the corner and we couldn’t capitalize on marking up,” St. Mary’s coach Mike D’Agostino said. “We didn’t win the 50-50 balls. We played four eight-graders (Nick Miller, Jacob Guarino, Marcos Weber and Cade Cornell) in this game. The youth’s gaining experience and we’re going to build off that. It’s a big league game and it’s tough to lose. We were competitive through the first half and then we just ran out of gas.”
Sophomore forward Kyle Hughes scored the Spartans’ lone goal on junior forward Joshua Chez’s assist.
Senior captain Connor Dolan put the Spartans in a 1-0 deficit just five minutes into the game. But the Spartans wasted no time clawing back. Chez and Huges found themselves in a 2-on-1 en route to the Williams net. Chez fed the ball to Huges, who fired a shot into the back of the net and knotted the score at 1-1 less than a minute after Williams took the lead.
“It was a great play,” D’Agostino said. “They worked the ball to the corner and found the man open in front of the net. That’s all we have to do. We couldn’t build any offense. When they countered and came down, they went down to the corner and they crossed the ball all six times. We weren’t marking up and marking up was a tough thing (Monday). Our defense was a little fatigued. We’re battling some injuries. It was a tough loss but we’ll move forward.”
Both teams settled down for the next few minutes. Then the Bishops reclaimed the momentum, this time with eighth-grader Jack Brady doing the honors, to go up 2-1. Williams controlled play for the rest of the half. And if not for a few key saves from goalie Matt Gallego, the Spartans wouldn’t have found themselves down one goal at halftime.
“Matt saved a huge PK last week in a (2-1) win over Austin Prep,” D’Agostino said. “He made a lot of diving saves and it was the best game I’ve seen him play all year. My other captain, Jackson Nickolau, played great. The two of them didn’t give up no matter what the score was. Ryan Fraher played great in the middle. Even in a game like this they still stepped up and worked hard. They always do, regardless of the score.”
It stayed at 2-1 through the first eight minutes of the second half. Colby Carey joined in on the fun with 31:55 to play. Carey cashed in on a free ball after a corner kick, stretching the lead to 3-1. That’s when Williams turned on the jets and ran away with it. Goals from Carey (two) and Dolan over the next 15 minutes gave the Bishops a comfortable 6-1 lead and they proceeded to run out the clock.
The Spartans, now 2-6-1 on the season, are focused on day-by-day improvements. With a young group gaining valuable varsity minutes, D’Agostino’s confident in what the future holds for his program.
“We’re building and looking forward to the future here,” D’Agostino said. “These younger kids are gaining experience. It’s great for sixth, seventh and eighth graders to get on the field and gain varsity exposure.”
St. Mary’s visits Spellman Wednesday (3).