Pioneers Girls Lacrosse Program Earns First Ever Varsity Win

If one were to judge simply by winning percentage, the Lynnfield High girls lacrosse team may be one of the greatest in Massachusetts history.

The Pioneers played their first ever varsity lacrosse game this week, and served Malden High with a 13-2 defeat at Pine Banks Park, giving Lynnfield a perfect 1-0 mark all-time.

“We were a little sloppy,” said Lynnfield head coach Ethan Blanchette. “We’re going to have to play a lot better than that the against the Cape Ann League teams ... We need to be a lot crisper with our passes and catches.”

The Golden Tornadoes (1-2), despite being on the wrong end of this one, can relate to the position the Pioneers are in, having only started their own varsity lacrosse program four years ago.

“(Lacrosse) is still a new sport in Malden,” said Golden Tornadoes head coach Julie Briggs. “We’ve only been playing varsity for four years ... We’re a young team, we come out here every day and we do the best we can.”

Despite the lopsided scoreline, Malden created its fair share of scoring chances, but lacked the killer instinct in the attacking third.

“On the attack, this is an issue: They’re very nice young ladies,” said Briggs. “The problem is, we’re missing that aggression piece a little bit. If someone falls, they’re the type that will stop and ask: ‘Are you alright?’ I have to remind them to keep going.

“You can’t teach speed,” she added. “So we have to work with passing and catching.”

Lynnfield boasted a quartet of multiple goal scorers, led by junior attacker Devon MacEachern who nabbed a nifty hat trick. Junior midfielder Alex Prach,  midfielder Alex Look and attacker McKenzie Parks—the latter pair both seniors—all bagged two goals each, while sophomores Dayle DiTullio and Jessica Miles each chipped in with a goal.

The Golden Tornadoes offense was generated by junior Paula Suerez and Sharon Lee, who tallied the goals of the afternoon for Malden.

Lynnfield netminder Lauren White made five stops in goal for the Pioneers.

Despite his perfect record so far as a varsity head coach, Blanchette knows full well the Pioneers have much work to do if they are to hang around in the always tough Cape Ann League.

“It’s always nice to win, but we’ve got a long way to go,” he said. “We definitely outplayed Malden, but we didn’t play as well as we need to.”

Lynnfield is back in action today against Cape Ann League opponent Georgetown.

On the Malden side of the equation, there is certainly room for improvement as well. When asked what she thought the most pressing area that needed work was, Briggs didn’t need to think about her answer at all.

“Defense,” she said. “Absolutely defense. Getting back, we were a little slow. We have a lot of work to do on defense.”

While there is work to be done, the Golden Tornadoes are certainly no stranger to it. School work, that is. The girls lacrosse team has the highest average GPA of any sports program at MHS.

Malden opens up its Greater Boston League schedule on Tuesday at Pine Banks against Medford.