Checking in on: St. Mary’s Lynn high school

St. Mary's Lynn has gotten a strong season from Brady Carpenter (27). (Chip Bott)

When St. Mary's Lynn blazed out of the gate at 8-0-1, it looked like one of last season's dominant teams was again going to make things tough for all challengers. After all, the team was 5-0 in its division, scoring 20 goals, allowing a mere three.

But then last Wednesday's game against Catholic Central Large rival Austin Prep popped up on the calendar, and everything changed. Not only did the Spartans stumble 2-1, they also lost leading scorer Kyle LoNigro (7-5-12) for four weeks to a separated shoulder.

"So that’s going to be tough," coach Mark Lee said about losing LoNigro, a JV player last year. "Last game we lost our first one. It was a great game, we just had a lapse in the second period for probably six minutes, they scored both goals and that was the end of the game. It was a great up-and-down game, we just couldn’t get the equalizer."

But there's a sense the Spartans will be able to deal with this adversity as well. Why? Well, they've dealt with injury adversity already this season and have emerged virtually unscathed from it, which they need in order to be one of the teams selected for a Top Six Division 1A slot.