Mount Greylock Boys Rally in Western Mass Semi-final Shootout

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Story updated at 9 a.m. Thursday with details, photos.
 
Junior Dan Flynn after making the penalty kick that won for Mount Greylock.
CHICOPEE, Mass. — Down 3-0 in a best-of-five penalty kick shootout, the "never-say-die" Mount Greylock boys soccer team rallied back Wednesday night for an improbable victory over Monument Mountain and a berth in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 championship game.
 
Cal Filson made a save in the seventh round of PKs to give Mount Greylock a chance for the win.
 
"And then all eyes turned to junior Dan Flynn," Mounties coach Blair Dils picks up the story. "Flynn calmly drilled the ball into the side netting and the Mountie celebration began in front of the shocked Monument Mountain players and their stunned fans."
 
The second-seeded Mounties (13-3-4) move on to play top-seeded Belchertown (18-2) in a rematch of last year's Division 2 semifinal, a 3-1 win for the Orioles.
 
As of Thursday morning, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association was yet to announce a time and date for the sectional final.
 
The semi-final Wednesday at Szot Park was 0-0 at half-time despite the Spartans' edge in quality scoring chances.
Fourteen minutes into he second half, Mount Greylock got the game's first goal.
 
"Grant Raphael played a long diagonal ball that Monument Mount back Connor Storit misplayed," Dils said. "The miscue went right to Eric Hirsch on the left side of the goal and with a swift strike with his left foot across the goal mouth, the ball struck the side panel and the Mounties improbably led, 1-0."
 
Monument, which had a win and a tie in the teams' regular season meetings, came back eight minutes later. Cam Powell scored with an assist from Bobby Kinne on a throw-in to make it 1-1.
 
And that is where it stayed through 18 more minutes of regulation and two 10-minute, sudden death overtime periods.
 
The Mounties' defense, anchored by Jake Foehl and David Majetich, limited Monument's chances, but Filson made a big stop on Powell with six minutes left in regulation to preserve the tie.
 
"The PK shootout began in nightmare fashion for the Mounties," Dils said.
 
The Spartans converted their first three chances before Raphael finally converted for the Mounties to make it 3-1 and keep his team's hopes alive.
 
Monument needed either a goal or a stop in the next two rounds and could get neither.
 
The Spartans' fourth try went over the cross bar, and Ian Brink converted for the Mounties to make it 3-2. Filson stopped Monument's fifth try, and Foehl was successful to knot the shootout at 3-3 and push it to sudden death.
 
After Monument converted in round six, Taylor Carlough kept the Mounties alive with a successful kick, setting the stage for the dramatics from Filson and Flynn in the seventh round.
 
 
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