SCITUATE — Some championships are a long time coming. 

For the Lynnfield boys soccer team, theirs was years in the making but, boy oh boy, when it finally came, was it sweet.

Before this year, the Pioneers had been to championship games just twice. In 2007, the team suffered the second of two heartbreaking back-to-back defeats in the championship game of the MIAA Division 3 tournament, losing in overtime to Bromfield 2-1.

The year before, it was even worse. Not only did the Pioneers lose to Bartlett 1-0 on a goal made possible by a questionable official’s call that gave Bromfield a free kick from the 25-yard line with less than 10 seconds left in the game, but the Pioneers’ bus was late. After a scramble, a replacement bus broke down on the highway, landing the team in the parking lot of a hotel, hoping – and waiting – to get to the field in time for the game. For the record, they did, only to come up empty.

Fast forward to Saturday night at Scituate High School. This time, the No. 2 Pioneers battled frigid temperatures and wind gusts up to 20 mph and made sure the third time’s the charm, defeating No. 9 Monomoy 1-0 to claim the team’s first state title in program history. 

“We were just surviving in the second half. Our defense played well but I feel like overall we didn’t play our best,” Lynnfield coach Brent Munroe said. “It was a hard day to play. They were good and really took it to us for a good part of the game especially when they had the wind. They had it in the second half and they poured it on. We barely held up but we held up. I think that when teams are pouring it on, as the time winds down, they rush things more and don’t have as many opportunities as before. 

Junior sensation Dillon Reilly scored the game-winner in the 64th minute. A minute earlier, junior goalkeeper Kelan Cardinal made the save of the game. And that says a lot because he had many goal-saving stops throughout the hard-fought contest. He one-handed a header by freshman Tate Laramee off a corner over the top of the net off the end line, which Munroe said was a “game-saver.”

After another corner went through the box, Monomoy kept up the pressure, earning a free kick at the 40 after a Lynnfield foul. Junior Chris Calnan got a boot on it and deflected it to junior exchange student Allesandro Raimondi, who played a long ball down the right side to Reilly in triple coverage. Reilly somehow managed to fight them off to gain position and blasted a bullet at the speed of sound from about 30 yards out past Monomoy senior keeper Paul Carlson inside the far post. The shot was just the second of the second half for Lynnfield and the 27th goal of the year for Reilly.

After that, Lynnfield just packed it in with a rock-solid defensive effort against the Sharks to seal the win.

Truth be told, both teams came into the game with different identities and styles. Monomoy had multiple offensive threats, outscoring opponents 69-34, while Lynnfield, which allowed only 12 goals all year (and just two in the tournament) for the most part relied on just one player for offense – Reilly. 

In the last four tournament games, the junior captain scored every Pioneer goal, seven in all. Senior captain Dhimitri Dono scored the only other post-season goal in a 1-0 win in round one against Northbridge.

Munroe, a Marblehead resident, said that while Reilly has been a difference-maker all year long, so has Cardinal.

“There weren’t a ton of hard saves tonight but there were a lot of balls he came out and handled in traffic that were huge difference makers,” Munroe said. “He has come so far from just being a raw athletic kid who now understands the position. He’s turned into a very good keeper. He was a huge factor today.”

The title was one Munroe has waited 31 years to savor, 23 as varsity coach.

“For me, personally, it’s just finally, finally,” he said. “It’s so hard to get it and while we had those two opportunities in ’06 and ’07. I love coaching and didn’t know if we would ever have another chance. I’m thankful that we got an opportunity and shocked and happy that we were able to finish it off. To win today was going to be hard. I’ve coached a lot of teams that didn’t win it and I’ve enjoyed those teams but to win one makes me feel pretty good.”

Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].