PIONEER field hockey senior co-captains Lauren McGrath (left) and Bailey Fanikos have led the Blue and Gold to a 16-1-2 season as they enter the Div. 2 North semifinals Thursday night against Weston at Reading High. Game time is 5:30 p.m. (Maureen Doherty Photo)
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
LYNNFIELD— The Pioneers field hockey team continues to dominate the sport in the region after downing Wayland 2-1 in the quarterfinal round of the Div. 2 North state sectional tournament.
With the win, the No. 2 seeded team improved its overall record to 16-1-2 to advance to the semifinal round on Thursday, Nov. 6 against Weston, the No. 3 seeded team with an identical record of 16-1-2. They will play at a neutral site, Reading High School, under the lights at 5:30 p.m.
The winner of this game will advance to the Div. 2 North sectional finals Saturday afternoon at North Andover High School to determine the Div. 2 North Championship team (time to be determined). Their opponents will be the winner of the game between No. 1 seeded Watertown (19-0-0) and No. 13 seeded Tewksbury (10-10-0), played Wednesday night at Reading.
Wayland puts up a fight
Lynnfield Coach Mamie Reardon was thrilled with her team’s tenacity and performance against Wayland, which plays in the competitive Dual County League. “They were a very well coached, very good team. They play against Weston, Foxboro, Lincoln-Sudbury. It’s a strong league so I knew that 10th seed was a strong 10,” she said.
Lynnfield lit up the scoreboard first when CAL Player of the Year Bailey Fanikos scored unassisted at 20:22 in the first half.
Wayland scored the equalizer with just 56 seconds remaining in the half. With the score knotted at 1-1, both teams played their hearts out in the second half.
“I felt we had the upper hand,” Reardon said. “My defense, with Lilli Patterson in the sweep position, was doing an incredible job. Lauren Guerra was unstoppable. She thwarted everything they had coming down the field … Bailey (Fanikos) was forging through into the circle, taking a lot of shots and keeping us in their end.”
Wayland fought to the end too. “They had some good moments and some good passing combinations and some strong players,” Reardon recalled. “But in the end we obviously came up the victor with 1:10 left.”
With regulation winding down, it appeared the game would be heading into overtime. Then, with just over a minute left in the game, the Pioneers got their chance.
“Kathleen Hamm got in and she passed it to Bailey. And Bailey took a shot and Marianne Oliveri was right there to put it in. It was quite exciting because it was going to overtime.”
The victory was made all the more sweet because it was the first game the team had ever played at the new LHS Stadium and it was their final home game of the 2014 season as the series moves on to neutral sites from this point forward.
Reardon said if the game had gone to overtime she was “very confident” in her team’s OT skills. They had scrimmaged this scenario earlier in the week against both Andover and North Andover to be prepared. “I felt very good about that 7 on 7,” she said.
At the tournament level in field hockey, if the score is tied at the end of regulation a 15-minute 7 on 7 OT period is played. If the game is still tied another OT period follows. If it remains tied, the game is decided on strokes from seven yards out, 1 on 1, with five players from each team alternating until all 10 shots are taken. If no winner is determined on strokes, a sudden death OT period is played, Reardon said.
Keeper Shannon Furey made four saves in the net while Wayland’s goalie turned away eight shots.
“We had 11 corners; they had one, so we always seem to get the corners but we are just not capitalizing on it. We’re working on it,” she said.
Player of the Year
Fanikos, who earned one goal and one assist in the game, now has a season total of 29 goals and 10 assists for 39 points. Her league-leading point total was a huge part of the reason the senior co-captain was named CAL Player of the Year in the Kinney Division for the second year in a row. Last year, she had 39 goals and nine assists for 48 points.
The midfielder was also named to the CAL First Team All-Star team (formerly called All-League) along with senior backs Allison Lyle and Lauren Guerra. Named to the CAL Second Team All-Star were senior forward Stefanie DeAngelis and sophomore sweeper Lilli Patterson.
“Every single one of those kids is deserving of those awards,” Reardon said. She called Guerra, who was an All-Star last year as well, a “godsend.”
“She’s smart, she’s aggressive and she’s fast. She is a really solid consistent player. She gains possession of the ball and doesn’t loose it; and if she loses it, she gets it back,” she said.
Lyle, her partner on the other side of the field, is equally consistent. Together the duo is “like yin and yang,” Reardon said. “They complement each other and she takes care of the left side. She’s smart and has good stickwork and good ball placement.”
Patterson in the backfield sweeps everything out to the side, away from the net. Patterson, Guerra and Lyle form a triangle of virtually impenetrable defense who get the ball to Fanikos at center midfield. Together, these four players form a diamond on the field that has made the team stronger on both sides of the ball.
“In the past we’ve had over 100 corners against us (in a season). We had only 55 corners against us this year. It’s very low and it is because of that diamond. And we’ve earned 198 corners against opponents.”
Reardon called DeAngelis “a strong player on the right. She’s not flashy but she consistently gets the job done, taking the ball, coming back for the ball, bringing it down and trying to send it across. She’s done a great job for us last year and this year.”
Reardon, who has been coaching the Pioneers for 32 years, was named the CAL Coach of the Year for the Kinney small school division. It was her first such honor since 2011 and she previously earned it in 2007. She believes it was her seventh coaching honor from the CAL over the course of her career, but has honestly lost track of the earlier years. Her teams won the North championship title in 1991 and 2000 and have made it to the division finals multiple times. They hope to repeat that accomplishment this year.
