Marauszwski Scores Pair as Wahconah Wins First
LENOX, Mass. – The Wahconah boys soccer team Friday took control of the game at the end of the first half and rode that momentum to a strong second half start in a 2-1 win under the lights at Lenox.
Ryan Marauszwski scored a pair of goals, and Zach Flaherty stopped 13 shots – including a second half penalty kick – as Wahconah earned its first win of the season.
For most of the first half, the MIllionaires (1-3) were the more dangerous team, but Wahconah made the plays it needed to in the defensive third to keep the score level.
Flaherty ended up with seven saves in the first half, including a couple of diving stops.
“Zach is phenomenal,” Wahconah coach Kyle Lyman said. “You should see the kid in practice. I mean, he saves just about every shot we take in practice. So I know he’s always ready for these moments. And I’m never concerned about him back there. He sees basically every shot that comes his way.”
And Flaherty showed repeatedly that he is ready to come off his line as needed.
“He’s basically like another defender out there for us,” Lyman said. “ ‘Deep sweeper,’ we’ll call him, just because he sees the through balls, and he’s right on top of it every time.”
Late in the half, Wahconah’s offense started finding some chances.
In the 35th minute, Cooper Calvert made a run on the right wing and fired a shot on Lenox keeper Vinni Dragonetti. Moments later, Marauszwski sent a cross from the wing into the 18 that found an unmarked forward, but the shot went high, keeping things 0-0.
Finally, with just more than two minutes to go, Wahconah took its first corner kick of the half. Sean Kays headed the ball across to Marauszwski, who played it off his chest to his feet and found a way to beat Dragonetti to make it 1-0.
“We get that first goal, and we just want to keep the pressure up, because we know that they’re bowing their heads, they’re not happy about the goal,” Marauszwski said. “We try to keep the pressure up. And then we get another one.”
That pressure ramped up to start the second half with Wahconah creating several strong scoring chances in the first 10 minutes of the period.
Dragonetti was able to punch one over the crossbar for a corner kick in the 48th minute. Two minutes later, Marauszwski got a head on a cross from the right wing that went just wide.
Finally, the pressure paid off in the 57th minute when Wahconah’s Mitch Scalise was fouled in the left side of the 18. Marauszwski took the ensuing penalty kick and fired a shot to Dragonetti’s right that found the back of the net to make it 2-0.
Instead of folding the tents, Lenox came back with more urgency, controlling play most of the remaining 23 minutes.
The 65th minute of the game saw its second penalty kick when Lenox’s Luke Gamberoni was taken down in the 18. He took the penalty kick and picked a spot to Flaherty’s right. But the Wahconah keeper dove to catch the ball, denying Lenox even a chance at a rebound.
The Millionaires finally got on the board with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left to play.
Fin Lenehan started the play by entering the ball into the 18 from the right wing. A Wahconah player tried to clear it, but the attempt went right to Cooper Maloney, whose one-timer from about 15 yards beat Flaherty to make it 2-1.
With just more than a minute left to play, another foul call, this time just outside the 18, gave Lenox its best chance for the equalizer.
But Wahconah defended the free kick from about 20 yards and a corner kick that it produced to preserve the lead.
Lenox assistant coach Robert Milne said that despite the final score, he liked what he saw from his team after it fell behind, 2-0.
“”I think we really started moving the ball well,” the Lenox alumnus said. “We were using the width of the field well and making that extra pass in the final third. That’s key, especially for the young guys. They’re great, they’re eager, they want to score, which I love. But making the extra pass clearly benefited.
“Great pass from Ian [Bridges], Finn got the cross in, Cooper off the head, Gotta love it. I man, that’s what you’re looking for. At the end of the day, we wish we could have gotten the result we were looking for, but we were lucky enough to take away a lot of positive things from this.”
Likewise, Wahconah’s Lyman has some things that he wants his team to work on coming out of the win.
“We’ve just got to play a consistent 80 minutes,” he said. “We have good stretches of 20 or 30 minutes here or there. But we just have to be more consistent with our play. We’re just trying to get better every single day, and we’re gonna continue to do that.”
Wahconah hosts South Hadley on Monday. Lenox is at Southwick on Monday.