Pioneers are North champs after historic wins over Watertown, Gloucester

Play South champ Dover-Sherborn in State Semi’s Thursday

Published November 13, 2019

By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI and DAN PAWLOWSKI

READING —For the first time since 2000, the Lynnfield High field hockey team are sectional champs.

The Pioneers ended up beating a tough Gloucester team 3-2 last Saturday afternoon in the Division 2 North Final on a sunny, cold day at Reading High.

“Gloucester has an excellent team,” said Pioneers’ head coach Mamie Reardon. “It could have gone either way.”

This game was back-and-fourth the entire way as Isabella Scala became the hero.

With the score knotted at two, the junior scored the game-winning goal with 12:29 left as she tipped home a shot by Lily Rothwell past goalie Mia Wheeler. That play came off a corner as all three Pioneer goals did, going 3-for-5.

The Fishermen struck first with 23:13 left in the first half. Mia Salah, the team’s top scorer, scored on a rebound off a corner. Ella Marshall got credit for the assist.

Lynnfield tied it up with 5:58 remaining in the opening half as Carolyn Garofoli hit a reverse shot by Wheeler on a corner assisted by Talia Bridgham. The shot came from the left side.

“That was a beautiful shot,” said Reardon. “It is a hard shot to defend.”

The Pioneers took their first lead with 1:51 remaining in the half as Garofoli assisted on Madison Murphy’s goal that went high into the Fishermen net to give the locals a one-goal lead heading into halftime.

Gloucester answered quickly tying it up with 28:44 left in the game as Cammi Cooper scored on a rebound in a scrum in front of the Pioneer net.

After Scala’s tally, it looked like the Pioneers were going to score again with 2:40 left but Wheeler denied Rothwell on a breakaway that kept the lead at one.

Lynnfield goalie Ava O’Brien made four saves to go to 16-4. Wheeler made six stops.

The fifth-seeded Pioneers improved to 16-4 with the win while the sixth-seeded Fishermen, a team out of the Northeastern Conference, ended the year at 14-4-2.

This is the third sectional title for the Pioneers, who also won back in 1991.

“We have a lot of depth,” said Reardon, who feels that the depth has been a big key to the team’s success. “So we are not losing any ground if I put somebody in.”

Lynnfield faces the South champion Dover-Sherborn in the state semifinals at Braintree High on Thursday, Nov. 14, beginning at 7 p.m.

If Lynnfield won, they would play the winner of the Hopedale vs. Frontier game out in Worcester on Saturday for the state championship.

That game will take place at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (time unknown at press time).

Shut out Watertown 1-0 

Lynnfield played state powerhouse Watertown in the Div. 2 North semifinal on Nov. 6 at Burlington High. The Pioneers shut out the Raiders in a gutsy 1-0 performance. Watertown has won the Div. 2 North bracket for 11 straight years going back to 2008. 

The historic victory hardly felt like an upset as the Pioneers stuck with Watertown in a relatively even game throughout, and held on during the second half to stop a relentless Raider attack.

Senior captain Lily Rothwell was the hero, scoring an unassisted goal with four minutes left in the first half as she flew down the left sideline, got to the front of the net and finished strong.

Goalie Ava O’Brien and the Pioneer defense played perhaps their best game in program history. Watertown put constant pressure on, but the defense stood up to every challenge. They stopped an incredible 13 corners in the second half alone as the Raiders threw everything they had at the Pioneers.

Lynnfield controlled most of the possession early in the first half, making a statement that this game would be close.

Senior captain Grace MacDonald was stellar on defense throughout the entire game. She stopped a fast break about 10 minutes in to help keep the game scoreless. 

After halting two corners, senior Jenna Freni later helped stop another good Watertown scoring chance as Watertown started to up the pressure.

O’Brien made the save of the game after a great pass set up what was sure to be the first goal of the night. The junior dove across and sprawled out to stop the shot. 

Rothwell rallied off that momentum and scored just a couple of minutes later.

The defense, including MacDonald, Freni and senior Lauren Kustka continued to battle and Lynnfield took a 1-0 lead into the break.

Watertown’s first corner of the second half hit the post about halfway up. Despite an early statement that included a crazy four-corner surge in the first five minutes, Lynnfield held strong. 

Garofoli often set the tone in the middle of the field as the first line of defense and communicated well to help the Pioneers clear the zone. 

With a timeout called and 16:32 left, it felt like an eternity left on the clock. But the Pioneers weren’t tiring, their adrenaline too high to slow them down on a chilly night.

Lynnfield stopped two more corners in the next five minutes before another timeout. Kustka and Maddie Murphy did a nice job of running out of the net and breaking up any potential chances. 

Garofoli had three straight clears on another trio of corners as Lynnfield’s defense continued to be a puzzle Watertown couldn’t solve.

Freni helped block another great scoring chance and Murphy stepped up again on a couple more corners as Lynnfield finally got to celebrate an historic trip to the North Finals.