Lynch’s late goal lifts MSC past Townies
WOONSOCKET — Given Mount St. Charles' conservative play in the opening 40 minutes of a Division II clash opposite East Providence on Monday afternoon, veteran head coach Phil Pincince knew exactly how he would address the situation at halftime.
“We talked about how we could speed up play; we were playing so slowly for most of the half,” he stated. “We were holding onto the ball too much, and we were having problems connecting. Of course, we had some moments of brilliance during the first 15 minutes or so, had some crossing and through passes and connections, but then we became slower again.
“I told the girls that we needed the ball to do the work, that it could travel faster than they could, so they had to move it with good passes.”
His plan for the final session was to get the ball to the flanks more crisply, attempt to find the open person and feed her; simply put, he wanted the squad to play more fluidly.
In the end, Pincince's requests were fulfilled – and then some. With only 2:19 left in regulation, sophomore Kylie Perron rifled a long feed in front of the right sideline toward the cage, and senior quin-captain Katie Lynch was there for the “reception.”
She knocked it down with one foot, passed it perhaps two feet to herself, then calmly tucked it inside the right post to give the Mounties the thrilled 2-1 victory over the Townies before perhaps 40 fans at the lower-campus field.
“I knew I had to beat the goalie (junior Mia Jackson) to the ball,” Lynch grinned after MSC improved to 3-3 overall and in league action. “I double-tapped it, I guess. I didn't see her fall, she was behind me, but I know she dove for it; that's when I passed it to myself and poked it in.
“It feels pretty awesome, actually,” she added.
“At halftime, Coach told us to keep working together, keep our heads high and stay positive, that eventually everything would come together. He also told us we needed to play more quickly. We just had to do a better job of connecting with our passes.”
EP remained winless at 0-4-4 on the campaign.
Still, it appeared the Townies would notch the first tally with 4:58 remaining before the break. That's when junior Alyssa DeOliveira tracked down a deflection deep in the box and crushed a low liner at the senior keeper, Abbey Dalpe. The latter, however, flew to her right and slapped the ball away with both hands.
The visitors caught another break in the opening 14 seconds of the second half. Dalpe tried to field a slow roller toward her right post, but her nonchalance allowed it to skip off her foot and past the goal stripe. It nevertheless didn't hurt her or the Mounties, as one of her defenders rapped it from harm.
Senior quin-captain Renee Jacques and junior Delaney Green each fashioned two golden opportunities to break into the lead in the first 10 minutes of the stanza, but Jackson mustered saves on the first three. On the fourth, officials whistled the Mount offsides.
But, with 21:03 left, frosh Anna Gicobbe finished off a fantastic feed from Jacques to give MSC the 1-0 advantage.
On the play, Jacques sent a right-toleft pass to Gicobbe in front, and the latter just chipped it past Jackson.
That advantage, though, didn't last long. Exactly 58 ticks later, freshman Olivia Williams converted a pass from DeOliveira to knot it at 1-1.
The fans on hand witnessed a flood of Mounties' chances over the final 15 minutes. With 10:25 on the clock, Jacques scorched a 20-yard line drive off the upper left corner of the crossbar, and – at the 6:49 mark – frosh Karissa Ciullo gained possession inside the top left section of the box and smoked a curler toward the left post.
Jackson, however, made a phenomenal sprawling save.
MSC controlled the tempo for most of the half, and Lynch found a way to seal it with 2:19 left.
“We had to frame the game the way we had talked about it at halftime,” Pincince said. “What I liked was that we scored, and they immediately tied it up. What did it take? Less than a minute? But we didn't roll over; we showed character and kept pushing, kept winning possession, kept control. This was a great game for us to show mental toughness and we did that.
“We stayed connected and anticipated better.”