Mount Greylock, Pittsfield End Up Scoreless

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – When a Mount Greylock senior captain drew a red card in the 53rd minute of Saturday night’s match at Pittsfield, the Mounties were forced to play the last 27 minutes with just 10 players on the pitch.

 

Fortunately for Mount Greylock, one of those players was Ward Bianchi.

 

Bianchi made 11 saves, including four leaping or diving saves in the final 18 minutes of play – to preserve a 0-0 tie for the visitors on Berkshire Community College’s Gene Dellea Field.

 

“It feels like a win,” Bianchi said. “Last year, Pittsfield took us, 1-0, on our Senior Night. Our message was to get it back, and I feel like we did.

 

“I mean, they’re all sitting down after the game, so that kind of gives you that message.”

 

Bianchi’s coach agreed that this was one of those stalemates where one team comes out feeling like a victor.

 

“It feels like a win, obviously, because we had to play with 10 for the last almost 30 minutes,” Chris Kapiloff said. “I think it feels like a win because they’re at least a mid-sized Division 3 school, and we’re a very small Division 4 school. It feels like a win because we’re playing against a crowd that doesn’t want us here. We’re playing on their Senior Night. We’re playing an away game.

 

“So with all those things stacked against us, we’re excited to walk off with a tie.”

 

Which doesn’t mean that Pittsfield (3-3-2) should feel like it lost, despite being shut out for the first time in six games.

 

“We were definitely shooting,” PHS coach Ryan Wanek said. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net. The [Mount Greylock] keeper had a whale of a game over there.

 

“It’s a little frustrating [to not score with 27 minutes of a man advantage]. But you can’t deny that we were the much better team for most of the game and definitely the last 28 minutes. We probably had six to eight great scoring opportunities at the end. And when you can’t find the back of the net, all you can do is tip the cap to the keeper.”

 

The first 40 minutes was contested, for the most part, in the middle of the field.

 

Pittsfield earned a 4-3 advantage in shots on goal. But Reese Cook-Dubin, one of 15 Pittsfield seniors recognized before the game, was tested on a couple of on-target direct free kicks, including one from 30 yards in the 24th minute of play.

 

The first solid chance of the second half came in the 45th minute when Pittsfield’s Mikey Hernandez drew a foul 25 yards from the goal. The Generals’ free kick, though, was well off the mark.

 

Two minutes later, Mount Greylock’s Ben Kapiloff had a try from the right wing that Cook-Dubin was able to corral.

 

Shortly thereafter, Mount Greylock’s Everett Bayliss earned a red card that left the Mounties without one of their most dynamic players and shot a player the rest of the way.

 

Chris Kapiloff, though, was more focused on the way the players on the field stood up to the challenge presented by Pittsfield.

 

“Ed Strolle came up huge for us,” Kapiloff said. “He’s not a normal starter, and he stepped up against a fast offense and was great tonight. Ben [Kapiloff], Nolan [Stuebner], Zin [Ducette], the guys on defense did a really great job.

 

“Charlie Bayliss, you know, is a little guy, but he takes more steps than anybody else out there. He gets pushed to the ground all the time. He just has been such a great presence in the middle of the field … and for him to step in in the place of his brother when his brother went off the field was a huge night for our sophomore, Charlie.”

 

In the 63rd minute, Pittsfield’s Hernandez took a free kick from 35 yards out that required Bianchi to make a diving stop that easily would have been the save of the night in most games.

 

But he was just getting started.

 

In the 70th minute, Hernandez put another free kick on target, this time from 30 yards, but Bianchi dove to make that stop and, on the ensuing corner kick, made another dive to deny a Pittsfield forward for two stops in about 20 seconds.

 

Two minutes later, Pittsfield’s Daniel Ezan had a try from 25 yards out that went off the crossbar.

 

But in the 63rd minute, Hernandez again lined up a free kick, this time from 30 yards out. He curled the ball over the wall and toward the net, but Bianchi leapt up and punched the ball over the bar to keep his sheet clean.

 

He came down and pumped his fists in celebration, sending a charge into his teammates that carried Mount Greylock through final stages, when the Mounties generated their best pressure of the game.

 

With about five minutes left, Pittsfield’s Ryan Stannard made a big play in the back to deny the Mounties’ Kieran Johnson. With less than a minute left, Cook-Dubin made a big save on a shot from Johnson from the left wing.

 

And in the very last seconds, a try from deep on the left wing from Mount Greylock’s Owen KoaMaya went into the side panel just before the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

 

“I told the boys at the end, this is the kind of toughness, this is the kind of energy level that needs to be our normal, and that is something we can take hopefully deep into a state tournament run,” Kapiloff said. “To lose to Monument, 1-0, on a penalty kick and to tie this team, 0-0 – these are the two other great teams in Berkshire County.

 

“It feels to me like we are getting ready to peak as we’re only three weeks away from the post-season.”

 

Mount Greylock (4-3-2) hosts Easthampton on Wednesday.

 

Pittsfield is at Monument Mountain on Tuesday.