Flynn Scores Twice for Mounties in Win Over Lenox

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
Print Story | Email Story

 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- After 40 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, there was little that separated the Mount Greylock and Lenox boys soccer teams.
 
After the half, it was all Mounties.
 
Dan Flynn scored both his goals after half-time to lead Mount Greylock to a 3-0 win over the Millionaires on John T. Allen Field.
 
Although the hosts had a 1-0 lead going into intermission, there was little sense of satisfaction for the Mounties at the break.
 
"We weren't making as many runs, and we weren't using the wings as much as we needed to," Mount Greylock senior Grant Raphael said. "It was getting too crowded in the middle. And myself and the other center midfielders were taking too many touches."
 
It took all of 43 seconds of the second half for Eric Hirsch to hit winter Flynn in transition. Flynn converted the pass, beating Lenox's Trevor Hathaway (nine saves) to make it a 2-0 game.
 
From there, the Millionaires made just a couple of forays into Mount Greylock's end of the field. The rest of the time, Mount Greylock (7-0-1) kept the pressure on Hatahaway and the Lenox backs, who did what they could to limit the damage.
 
Mount Greylock's third goal came after Hathaway made a save on a shot from outside the 18 by Raphael. Flynn cashed in the rebound in the 54th minute to provide the final margin of victory.
 
The game-winner came in the 30th minute off another carom. That time, it was a Benni McComish free direct kick from 35 yards out that ricocheted off a Lenox defender to the feet of Felix Kershaw, who had plenty of net to work with in scoring his fifth goal of the season.
 
Lenox coach Simon Borrett said that a couple of key injuries caught up with the Millionaires in the second half.
 
"It's been kind of a situation we've had this year in terms of numbers," he said. "We're very specialized in the way we set up our team, and we try to train players for specific positions. If there's an issue where one guy goes down, we normally have a deputy who can go in and fill in his position -- obviously maybe not the same capability, but they know the responsibilities, they know the method we're playing.
 
"The problem comes when you have the deputy go down."
 
Forced to plug holes in his line, Borrett decided to play a less complicated 4-4-2 scheme instead of Lenox's usual 4-3-3 alignment, he said.
 
One bit of good news for Millionaires (3-4-2) is that they may be closer to full strength when they host Hoosac Valley on Thursday. Another plus: Even down a couple of players, Lenox was competitive with the Mounties through 40 minutes.
 
"The first half, that's generally the way we play," Borrett said. "We gave up a sloppy goal, but we really went with them. We had some opportunities that went wide. On a different day, it could have been in the back of the net.
 
"But I was generally pleased with the way we played in the first half. Those are the positives you've got to take away when you play bigger, stronger programs. Our goal is to ultimately go to Western Mass at the Division 4 level."
 
Mount Greylock, which competes in the Division 3 sectional, will look to clinch a tourney berth and better its seeding with a couple of independent games to finish the week -- at West Springfield on Thursday and at Chicopee on Saturday.
 
The Mounties will need to play more complete games from here on out, according to Seth Rogers, the Mount Greylock junior varsity coach who filled in for head coach Blair Dils, who is serving a suspension handed down by the school for MIAA violations.
 
"It definitely could have been a different ballgame, and we talked about that at the end," Rogers said. "We need to come out stronger for our next couple of games. We don't want to go down a goal because we haven't started playing yet."
 
Print Story | Email Story