THE LYNNFIELD High girls’ lacrosse team celebrated a milestone day for junior captain Taylor Valiton on May 22 at Essex Tech. Valiton recorded her 200th career goal, finishing with 7 goals and 2 assists in Lynnfield’s 20-9 victory. (Courtesy Photo)
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Published May 29, 2024
By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
MELROSE — In their final game of the regular season last Friday, the Lynnfield High girls’ lacrosse team lost, 16-14, at Melrose on a hot, sunny day.
With that non-league defeat, the Pioneers ended up at 9-11 overall. Melrose, who is two divisions higher than the Pioneers (Div. 2 while Lynnfield is Div. 4) improved to 11-5.
This game was tight throughout as Lynnfield led 8-7 at halftime and was trailing, 11-10 at the end of the third quarter.
Up 15-14, the Red Hawks scored an insurance goal late in the fourth quarter to put the game on ice.
“It was two evenly-matched teams,” said Pioneers head coach Christina Serra. “It was hot out there and we were short with our depth missing three seniors.”
Hayden Valiton led the Pioneers’ offense with six goals while fellow freshman, Ava Damiani, had five goals. Junior Taylor Valiton (Hayden’s sister), scored three goals and had one assist.
Maddie Mastrangelo chipped in two assists.
Lynnfield goalie, Casey Flynn, made seven saves in net.
In their last Cape Ann League game of the season on May 22, the Pioneers won, 20-9, at Essex Tech up in Danvers.
It is the third time this spring that the Pioneers have scored 20 goals as they did it against Triton and Malden Catholic as well.
With that win, the Pioneers finished at 5-8 in the Cape Ann League. They came in fourth place in the CAL Baker Division.
“We had a very strong second half,” stated Serra, as her squad outscored the Hawks, 12-4, in the second stanza.
It was a memorable day for Taylor Valiton as she had seven goals and two assists. The attacker recorded her 200th-career goal in the fourth quarter and she also had 17 draw controls.
“She has been very strong with her draw controls all year,” said Serra. “We gave her the game ball afterwards.”
Damiani had four goals and one assist while Mastrangelo recorded a hat trick to go with one assist.
Hayden Valiton scored five goals and had one assist while freshman, Jordan Calichman, had one goal and two helpers.
Lily White had one assist as well.
Flynn made six saves in that game.
Lynnfield finished 13th in the final MIAA Division 4 playoff rankings which means they should get a home playoff game to start the tournament. The seedings will come out on May 29.
“The team keeps improving every game,” said Serra, who is trying to set up a scrimmage for later this week with the big gap in-between games.
