ORANGE, Mass. -- Shaleigh Levesque scored a pair of goals Friday to lead the Hoosac Valley girls soccer team to a 4-1 win over Mahar in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 3 tournament.

 

“After a long bus ride like that, as a coach, you always wonder how much of an affect it will have on the players,” Hoosac Valley coach Kathy Budaj said. “They played a great game today. I give a lot of credit to our defense for playing so strong and getting the ball up the field for the forwards to do their job.”

 

The Hurricanes jumped out to an early lead and held that 1-0 margin through half-time.

 

“We came out strong and did a nice job of getting the ball in behind their defense which created many opportunities,” Budaj said. “We went up in the 6th minute with a wonderful ball played by Lily Boudreau to Sydni Jamross who did a nice job of maintaining composure and had a nice finish.”

 

Levesque scored on assists from Jamross and Claudia Bresett. Bresett then scored an insurance goal on an assist from Riley Robinson.

 

Grace Kronick and Kelsey Bulson combined for five saves in the win.

 

The 10th-seeded Hurricanes (8-7-3) await the winner of Saturday evening’s first-round match between No. 15 Pioneer Valley (6-6-4) and No. 2 Wahconah (11-3-2) in Dalton.