Lynch nets 2 in MSC win
Mount opens season with victory over St. Raphael
PAWTUCKET – Following Mount St. Charles coach Marek Wolny’s lengthy postgame chat with his team late Friday afternoon, junior Katie Lynch chose to pose with a few teammates and shoot some “selfies” with her cellphone.
That was her way of celebrating the Mounties’ solid 2-0 victory over gritty St. Raphael Academy in both schools’ Division II opener before approximately 75 fans at the McKinnon-Alves Complex.
Lynch manufactured both goals for the victors, and seemed thrilled by the fact she and her teammates had begun this campaign just the way they had hoped.
“It definitely boosts our confidence,” she stated. “We really wanted to start with a win, and now we want to keep our standards high. We’ve got some momentum after this one.”
Wolny agreed, but did see some flaws during the triumph.
“I thought, for our opener, we started slowly, then began to play our game before falling apart again,” he offered. “I still think we need quite a bit of work in the midfield; we didn’t control the ball as well I had hoped, and St. Raphael did a good job in that category. In fact, we lost the midfield, but managed to capitalize on a couple of opportunities.”
The Saints fell to 0-1 overall and in league action, but chief Andre Martins remained hopeful of a rebound as his club continues to jell.
“I still think we need quite a bit of work in the midfield; we didn’t control the ball as well I had hoped, and St. Raphael did a good job in that category.” – MSC coach Marek Wolny
“I thought we controlled the midfield, too,” he noted. “This was a story of two good teams battling for territory, and I thought we moved the ball well at times. It’s tough to play that way, trying to switch sides and find open players with passes without making mistakes, but possession always changes, and they got the best of us in a couple of spots.
“(Mount) is strong and physical, but I thought we showed some heart,” he continued. “The girls believe in what we’re doing and how we’re coaching them. I think people are going to enjoy watching our brand of soccer the rest of the way.”
MSC senior keeper Morgan Hancock finished with 11 saves, while SRA sophomore counterpart Saylor Costa turned away an even dozen.
The Mounties opened the clash with aplomb, taking less than seven minutes to post a pair of shots Costa, but the hosts initiated five unanswered tries over the next 17.
Just 15 minutes into the first stanza, senior Ashley Bullen stole the ball at the midfield stripe, dribbled down the left side and smoked a leftfooter at the near post, but Hancock made a stellar crouching stop.
Seven minutes later, junior Alivia Diaz raced down the right sideline, sliced in and drove a hard grounder at the goalie, who again made a splendid save.
And, with 15 minutes left before the break, Bullen delivered a left-to-right feed to Kasey Contreras, who onetimed an attempt from the middle, yet Hancock smothered that, too.
It appeared the Mounties would take the 1-0 advantage with eight minutes remaining when Costa came out of her net to squelch a probable try from Lynch. The latter, however, spun around both the keeper and a defender and fired at the cage.
That sailed just wide of the right post.
With less than three minutes left, in the 37th, Lynch drove a 34-yard floating, curling free kick from the right at Costa, who leaped and looked to have made the stop. The shot nevertheless trickled off her fingertips and into the netting for the 1-0 cushion.
“It kind of curved in, but I knew it would be there,” a grinning Lynch said. “I wasn’t surprised because we all believe in our skills. We think when we take a shot that it will be on target, and it will go in.”
That’s how the half ended, and the advantage seemed to ignite the visitors at the start of the final session.
In the 56th minute, MSC junior Eileen Whalen accepted a pass in the middle of the offensive zone and mishit a pitch, but that bounced off the corner of the left post/crossbar.
Lynch followed with the insurance tally in the 63rd, but it came on a superlative pass from senior co-captain Hannah Trottier.
On the play, Trottier sent a cross from the right to a streaking Lynch, who poked it past Costa for the 2-0 lead.
“It was a great pass from Hannah; the goalie came out of the net to stop it but it bounced past her, and I was right there,” Lynch said. “I had an open net, so I just (chipped) it home.”
With 13 minutes left in regulation, however, Saints’ shifty senior forward Kaylee Contreras found herself on a clear breakaway, yet Hancock sprinted out of the goalie box, cut down the angle and forced her to rope it wide right.
Both Diaz and Gianna Medeiros had chances down the stretch to slice the deficit to one, but failed to do so.
Outstanding defensive efforts for the Mount came from senior co-captains Lucy Baxter and Trottier; junior Meghan Whalen; sophomore Ava Sangiovanni; and frosh Kylie Perron. Likewise, seniors Contreras, Micayla Bourski and Bullen – not to mention Diaz, junior classmate Aurelie Sylva and freshman Daylin Mendes – played well for the Saints.
“That first goal was a great free kick by Katie, and you could see our girls get some relief on the field,” Wolny said. “They started to flow nicely after that, but we still have a lot of work to do. There’s plenty of room for improvement.”