RallyNorth.net

Pino, North Andover earn finals berth

Friday, June, 05 By David Willis
Staff writer

NORTH ANDOVER — After watching her coach get doused with celebratory Gatorade, North Andover’s Kate Kleinendorst took a moment to look out onto the empty Walsh Stadium field.

“Picture-perfect,” she said with a smile. “I honestly couldn’t have dreamed this. This is unbelievable, but we did it.”

No. 5 North Andover took the lead with 14:47 left in the first half, and did not surrender that advantage on the way to defeating No. 10 Weston 11-5 in the Division 2 North final last night.

The win sends the Scarlet Knights to the Division 2 state championship game (there are no Division 2 teams in Central or Western Mass.) for the first time in the nine-year history of the program. They had only advanced to the North finals one other time, a 2005 loss to Winchester.

“This is just awesome,” said senior Bri Connolly. “Going into the season we said we were going to do this, and we achieved out goal.”

North Andover will face South champion Norwell (15-5-1) Tuesday at Babson College.

“It is amazing how far we have come,” said goalie Stephanie Taylor. “We have never made it this far, and we have stepped it up year after year. I’m confident we want it more and will take it home.”

Jenn Pino scored five goals to up her season total to 73. Connolly added a hat trick to give her 53 for the year.

Weston took a 1-0 lead 3:44 into regulation. But 1:22 later, Pino struck for her first goal of the game, and Kleinendorst scored 4:59 later to give the Scarlet Knights the lead for good.

“Right when they took the lead they thought they had us,” said Pino. “To strike back was big. We took possession and capitalized on that.”

After nearly 12 minutes of scoreless play, the Scarlet Knights took command as Pino scored her second goal and Connolly and Jenna Armstrong each added their first score to make it 5-2 at the half.

Weston did muster a comeback, scoring two goals in the opening 2:05 of the second. But Connolly hit back with two goals of her own to give North Andover the momentum for good.

Emily Vento then chipped in with a goal, and Pino tallied three more in the final six minutes to finish off the biggest win in the program’s history.

“This tournament has been a rollercoaster of emotions,” said Kleinendorst, who sat out the first two games of the playoffs due to illness. “We kept pushing forward and did what we needed to do.”

Taylor, who was sporting purple hair, continued to dominate in net. The senior made eight saves, including two big stops from point blank when the game was in question in the first half.

“Pino just executed for us tonight,” said North Andover coach Karen Lahey. “And Steph played really well. We move up to Division 1 next year, so this was our last chance to be Division 2 North champs. And we did it.”