Spartans Shut Out Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Monument Mountain boys soccer team Thursday started strong and finished stronger in a dominant, 5-0 win over Pittsfield at Kirvin Park.
Nico Pazmino scored a pair of goals, and Sean Collins had a goal and an assist as the Spartans finished the first week of the season with a win and a tie.
After scoring just once in the opener, the Spartans found the back of the net twice in the first 10 minutes on Thursday.
Collins got the scoring started when he converted the rebound of a diving save by Pittsfield’s Reese Cook-Dubin (six saves) in the sixth minute.
At the 9 minute, 10 second mark, Pazmino successfully challenged a Pittsfield attempt to cross the ball from the left wing in its backfield and scored to double his team’s lead.
By the time the game was over, four different Spartans had found the back of the net.
“We spread it around for sure,” Monument Mountain coach Matt Naventi said. “It’s a lot harder for teams to defend when it’s not just one player.
“Some of the guys that didn’t get a lot of minutes last year or who floated between varsity and JV have done a lot of work and have come ready to play and are contributing and starting for us. So we had a lot of pleasant surprises, over the summer and then in preseason. Guys are fighting for minutes and need to earn them, so that’s a great thing to have.
“For the first time in a few years, we’ve got a pretty solid and deep bench.”
After falling in a hole early, the Generals managed a couple of strong chances later in the first half.
First, Daniel Ezan had a try from the right side that forced Spartan keeper Calvin Cooney to make a diving save. Six minutes later, Pittsfield’s Mateo Yepez fired a shot from about 35 yards out that Cooney managed to leap up and punch over the crossbar for a corner kick.
“I was happy with the first 20 minutes,” Naventi said. “Then the game kind of slipped. Our game plan kind of slipped away from us the second 20 minutes of that first half. We weren’t playing to feet as well, getting more involved in the end-to-end game, and that’s not going to be our style this year.
“That was kind of the challenge at half-time: Can we get back to playing our style of play? And they quickly did and maintained it through the second half, which is nice.”
Pittsfield’s Generals, meanwhile, face a different kind of challenge: getting all of its players on the pitch.
“We need to get healthy and get healthy quick,” Pittsfield coach Ryan Wanek said. “We’re short three to four starters right now due to injuries. … It happened in preseason – preseason scrimmages – and they haven’t been able to recover since. And we’re paying the price for it.
“If we have those three or four people on, it’ll give the rest of the team more confidence, and you’ll definitely see a different game.”
After scoring twice in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Spartans scored twice in the first 11 minutes of the second half.
First, Mason Whiteman was in the right place at the right time on a corner kick play to intercept a clear attempt by a Pittsfield defender and fire a shot into the goal.
Then Collins set up Pazmino with a cross that led to the Spartans’ fourth goal.
With about 12 minutes left to play, Collins helped set up the game’s final score.
He made a run down the right wing and made a deep crossing pass that was deflected by Cook-Dubin to Clay Steven, who finished to cap the scoring.
At the other end of the field, Monument Mountain’s Cooney was spelled by Xavier Hernandez during the second half. The pair combined to make seven stops.
Monument Mountain (1-0-1) Monday has a rematch with Amherst, which tied the Spartans in the opener on the Hurricanes’ field.
Pittsfield (0-2) will continue to look for answers on Saturday when it goes to Dalton to play Wahconah.