Wildcats Continue to Dominate With Win Over Lynnfield

The boys' basketball team's head coach, Joseph Maiella, boasts that "everything is going according to plan" as his team added another win to its collection with a 70-47 victory over Lynnfield on Monday night at home. 

The Wildcats (12-2 overall) got off to a solid start and led by seven at the end of the first quarter, but it wasn't until the second quarter when they really started coming alive. 

"The defense in the first quarter wasn’t that great, but we did much better in the second quarter," said Maiella, whose team fell to Manchester Essex Friday.

Lynnfield sits near the bottom of the Cape Ann League standings while the Wildcats are in a battle for first.

"The disappointment doesn’t lie in the fact that we lost," said Lynnfield coach Scott Mackenzie, "it was our willingness to accept the big run they went on in the second quarter and I feel like our guys bought into that."

The Pioneers struggled to keep pace with their opponents, consistently trailing by 15 or more throughout the majority of the game. 

Junior Vinny Scifo led Wilmington in scoring, registering 24 points on the night. Classmates Cole Peffer and Tim McCarthy also came up big on the scoreboard, earning 15 apiece in the win. 

"It was a good game," said Wilimington captain Nick Godzyk. "When we play our best we can blow out anyone."

A series of steals by the Wildcats to close out the third quarter allowed them to widen the scoring gap and go up 62-38 as the final minutes went up on the clock. The Pioneers were unable to chip away at the huge lead enough to make a dent, and went home with the one-sided loss. 

"We gave up emotionally and mentally," said Mackenzie. "We ended up making it a little bit too easy for them. Losing to them is one thing,  [they are] a very good team in our league, but making it easy for them is the real disappointing thing." 

The large lead allowed Wilmington's bench to get in on the action at certain points of the game, something Maiella was happy about. 

"We went into the locker room up 20 [at the half], so that was good and it was good to get some of the third group guys some time, and everyone played tonight so that was good," he said. 

Next up, the Wildcats will try to continue their winning ways on the road in Ipswich tonight at 6:30 p.m.

"[Ipswich] used to have some good teams, but lately they’ve been down but we still have to play our best," Godzyk said. 

"Tomorrow night we have Ipswitch and they haven’t won a game but we need to go get them," added Maiella.