DANVERS — The No. 10 Lynnfield boys soccer team and head coach Brent Munroe knew they were in for their toughest test of the season Monday afternoon against a strong No. 3 Watertown team in the Division 3 North semifinal. But the Pioneers didn’t back down.
Lynnfield stuck to its game plan through all 80 minutes and walked away with a 2-1 upset win at St. John’s Prep’s Fred Glatz Field.
“We’ve been sort of counter punching teams a lot this year,” Munroe said. “We finished this year at 9-8-1, so we are what we are. We’re not a juggernaut. We knew we just had to defend like crazy and hope we put one or two in and get a little bit of luck. That’s exactly how it went.”
The Pioneers got a huge lift to start this one. Midway through the first half, a long throw-in by Luke Martinho found its way to the front of the net where Thomas Hauser got just enough of a piece on the ball to knock it in and give Lynnfield an early 1-0 lead.
“Luke has been taking those long throws all year,” Munroe said. “We’ve gotten a ton of goals and scoring chances off that. We got another one. It didn’t surprise us that we converted. We converted two of our probably four chances and they converted on one of their 50. That’s how it works.”
Scoring the first goal of the game was key for a Pioneers team that knew they were going to spend most of their day on the defensive.
“It was huge,” Munroe said. “Watertown was going to spend 80 percent of the game in our end no matter what the score was. But it’s a lot easier to do it with a lead, even if it is just one goal. You know that if you give something up you’re still going to be in it right until the end. You don’t need to score, you just defend.”
That defense, led by junior goalkeeper Dante Gesamondo (17 saves), was put the test from start to finish. But they were up for the challenge, as they’ve been all postseason.
Gesamondo made a pair of diving stops and the Lynnfield defense held strong on a pair of late corners to preserve the 1-0 lead going into the half.
Watertown’s pressure didn’t stop in the second half. Kenan Canca had a terrific chance to tie the game on a shot he tried to slip into the top left-side corner of the goal but Gesamondo made a leaping save.
Midway through the second half, a pair of freshmen made what would become the game-winning play for the Pioneers. Alexander Gentile got possession in the box and drew a foul that gave Lynnfield a free kick. Another freshman, Henry Caulfield, took that kick and put it in perfect position for a header from Gentile to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.
“Henry took the long kick and Alex just put it into the net on the back post,” Munroe said. “It was pretty special for those guys to do that together.”
That goal gave Lynnfield some much needed insurance against a relentless Watertown team. Gesamondo made another amazing save on a free kick with just over five minutes to go but a few minutes later Watertown finally found the back of the net to cut the lead to 2-1.
The goal made things interesting in the final minutes but, after a timeout, Lynnfield was more than ready to close out the win and punch its ticket to the North final.
The Pioneers will take on No. 1 Bedford Saturday (1) at Manning Field.