CHESHIRE, Mass. -- With five goals and three assists on Monday afternoon at Hoosac Valley,
Wahconah senior Jeremy Girard definitely was a star for his squad.
But he knew to give credit where it was due as Wahconah beat Hoosac Valley, 14-2, for its third straight win, ninth overall and a berth in the Western Massachusetts tournament.
“We scored 14 goals, but I have to put this whole game on the defense,” Girard said. “They didn’t let [Hoosac’s] best players get looks. They limited their possession time, and that just gave us more time to put the ball in the back of net.”
Girard has been doing that a lot this spring for Wahconah. On Monday, he scored his 18th goal to go along with 22 assists. But he was loathe to take full credit even for that part of the win.
“I’ve been gaining confidence, and my teammates have been giving [the ball] to me,” Girard said. “They’re giving me good passes. They’re finding me, obviously. It’s not on me. I have to give credit to our whole offense. They do a great job of finding me when I’m hot and taking it themselves when they know they can.”
Team scoring leader Dart Jaggi matched Girard with five goals on Monday and ran his total to 48 this season for Wahconah, which improved to 9-4.
It’s a different team than the one that dropped a 10-8 decision to Hoosac Valley to fall to 1-2 back in mid-April, Girard said.
“Our aggression, our attack, we’ve just had that fire that we didn’t have in the beginning of the year,” he said.
Wahconah came out on fire on Monday, taking a 4-1 lead after the first quarter, and it never looked back.
“We talked to the guys all week about this game -- getting ready for it and preparing for it mentally,” Wahconah coach Zach Sondrini said. “Honestly, I don’t think we were ready for it the first time we played them.
“You could see a huge difference. We’ve made modifications with guys in different places. But in terms of preparing for games .. our focus in warm-ups is something that we’ve been focusing on since that game.
“We like those games at the beginning of the season because it kind of shows who you are. If you’re winning all your games, there’s not much to build on and not much to work off of. And we’re playing our best lacrosse right now.”
Matt Mathers scored a pair of goals, and Dayton Kozlowski had a goal and three assists. And at the other end of the field, Dom Orlandi needed to make just six saves to earn the win.
“Corey Bazonski, Mike Fortin and Trey Massaro did an excellent job of stopping two of the leading point scorers in Western Mass,” Sondrini said. “Our defense and Dom Orlandi held [Nick] Waterman and Casey Mezcywor to a combined one point.”
Waterman score one goal, and David Critelli had the other for Hoosac Valley, which got 11 saves from Brady Larkin.
Hoosac Valley (13-2) finishes the regular season against Burr & Burton on Wednesday.
Wahconah hosts Mount Anthony and Agawam on Wednesday and Friday in a pair of night games.
