Lee Downs Mount Everett in High-Scoring Affair
LEE, Mass. – Ava Lucy and Giana Carlino each finished with two goals and two assists Monday as the Lee girls soccer team pulled away from Mount Everett for a 5-2 win as the Wildcats stayed unbeaten this fall.
Arianna Noyes made 14 saves for the Wildcats, who got a goal from Carlino in the 20th second of play but found themselves up by just one, 3-2 with three minutes left in the first half.
But Lilly Hassmer converted an assist from Noyes to make it a two-goal margin at half-time, and the Wildcats got the only goal of the second half from Lucy to open up the game’s biggest lead.
The seven total goals followed the script for the Eagles, who have not played a game with fewer than five goals between the two sides this fall.
But the total number of shots on goal, 41, likely was due, in part, to the open space created on the field by each team playing with 10 players due to injuries that have left Mount Everett short-handed.
“It’s different because I feel like we were able to get so much space,” Lee coach Gina Guachione said. “Our field’s one of the wider fields in the county anyway. But we were able to really use the width. That’s where we capitalized on it.
“I feel like we didn’t have it so much in the middle. But when we went wide, we were able to create some good opportunities.”
After Carlino scored in the first minute, Lee did not have time to settle into having the lead before Mount Everett’s Jadah Stevens broke down the right wing and scored with 38 minutes, 32 seconds left in the half to make it 1-1.
The pace settled down from there until the first timeout midway through the half.
Coming out of the break, Lucy scored with an assist from Carlino to give Lee a 2-1 lead. And 10 minutes later, Carlino scored her second to give her team a two-goal margin.
But the Eagles rallied, getting a try from Stevens from high on the left wing that curled under the crossbar and pulled Mount Everett to within a goal at 3-2 with 10:42 on the clock.
“She’s our top goal scorer, easily,” Mount Everett coach Robert Giumarro said of Stevens. “She just brings a lot of energy and talent to the team. It’s her first year with us.”
The Wildcats re-established their two-goal margin just before half-time when Lucy set up Hassmer for a goal with 2:52 on the clock to make it 4-2.
The second half started with Lucy’s second goal in the 48th minute.
That capped the scoring but not the shooting as Mount Everett’s Amelia Manoli and Lee’s Noyes stopped 26 shots between them in the second half.
“She stepped up crazily,” Guachione said of Noyes. “This is her first year playing with us and playing soccer. So for her to get in the net and to be doing dives … She plays basketball, so she has good hands. But she’s been learning it all, and she’s been doing amazing.”
Giumarro is also happy with the progress he has seen from Manoli, who finished with 19 stops in the loss.
“She’s proved herself a lot this year,” he said. “She went to soccer camp over the summer, and she’s just stepped it up big-time for us this year.”
Although Lee carried the play most of the second half, Mount Everett had a couple of good chances to cut into the lead. Tessa DiGiovanni in the 55th minute, Stevens in the 68th and Josephine Waveris in the closing seconds each tested Noyes.
But Lee’s depth took its toll on the Eagles, who kept all 10 of their available players on the field for 80 minutes.
Giumarro said his full roster is 17, and he expects to have about 13 or 14 available when the Eagles (2-2-1) travel to Chicopee’s Bowie Park on Thursday to face Hampden Charter.
“Throughout the season, we have a lot of girls [play all 80] normally, but they just dug deep today,” he said. “I’m proud of them all.
“We were totally still in it [down 4-2]. I thought it was still a winnable game at the half. And, obviously, we were tired. But I just couldn’t be more proud of how hard they worked. They played hard for all 80 minutes.”
Lee is back in action on Tuesday traveling to face Pathfinder.
Photos from this game to come.