Spartans Stop Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Monument Mountain boys soccer team Friday capped a 2-0-1 week with a 3-1 win over Pittsfield at Kirvin Park.
Luke Guerrero and Milo Potoski each had a goal and an assist in the win.
Finn Mason scored a goal, and Calvin Cooney made three saves as the Spartans moved over the .500 mark for the first time this fall.
In Wednesday’s win, three different Spartans found the back of the net in a win over Mount Greylock.
“We’ve had a balanced attack this year, which is nice,” Monument Mountain coach Matt Naventi said. “We don’t have the single guy like we’ve had the last year or two that allows teams to really make a game plan around and limit our attack to some extent.
“So that’s been good to have, and some of the younger guys are stepping up and contributing a lot more than they were able to last season. So that’s only going to help us as the season moves on.”
The Spartans opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Sean Collins’ throw-in from the left touch line led to Oliver Curtis’ shot on goal. Pittsfield keeper Reese Cook-Dubin (10 saves) made the initial stop, but Guerrero put home the rebound to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Monument Mountain doubled that margin just 57 seconds later.
That is when Guerrero set up Potoski, whose shot deflected off Cook-Dubin’s fingertips and into the goal to make it 2-0.
“That kills everything,” Pittsfield coach Ryan Wanek said. “Kills the momentum we thought we had a little bit from Wednesday night [a win over Wahconah]. And once you give up two goals in less than a minute, that’s a knife right into the gut.
“I thought we responded pretty well to it, not the greatest. We didn’t give up anything else the rest of the first half. … And I didn’t call timeout [after the second goal] because I wanted to see how the boys would respond.”
Monument Mountain did have a couple more chances to extend its lead before the break, notably a shot by Guerrero that went off the post following a corner kick.
But the Spartans finally were able to go up 3-0 in the 45th minute. That is when Mason headed home a cross from Potoski.
Cook-Dubin came up big for the Generals midway through the half when he denied Collins from the middle of the 18 and then stopped Mason’s try to convert the rebound.
And Pittsfield’s offense, which was held without a shot on goal in the first half, generated four in the second. It got on the board in the 66th minute on a Sebastian Moreno penalty kick after a Generals’ attacker was taken down in the 18.
“We wanted to high press them in the second half, just to try to get something going offensively – turn them over and try to do a quick counter attack, because we were unable to even connect three passes in the first half,” Wanek said. “We changed our style a little bit with pressing a little bit more with two strikers and especially those wingers in the outside back, because, usually, outside backers don’t like to have the ball on their feet.
“That’s what we did on one play, but we needed it a couple of times, obviously.”
Pittsfield (1-5-1) will look to get back in the win column on Tuesday when it hosts Agawam.
Monument Mountain (3-2-2) is off for a few days before heading to Hampshire on Thursday. The Spartans will look to carry some momentum from its tie against Amhers on Monday and back-to-back wins against former Berkshire North rivals.
“And we got a little unlucky with Amherst to give up a free kick with a minute left to allow them the equalizer,” Naventi said. “So, other than that, we’ve got a lot of sickness going around the team, a few injuries we’ve had to deal with. So to get a couple of good wins against two strong teams and get a decent result against a Division 2 team and really outplay them for most of the game – you really can’t complain about the week, for sure.”