Monument Mountain Boys Advance in Penalty Kick Shootout

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Monument Mountain senior Calvin Cooney showed Thursday that it is important to do your homework – even for your extra-curriculars.

 

Cooney made two saves in a 3-1 penalty kick shootout win over Chicopee that sent the Spartans into the Western Massachusetts Class B Championship Game.

 

The Monument keeper went into the shootout with a little inside knowledge that paid off.

 

“Griffen [Wrisley], their player, he posts all his clips on Instagram, so it was easy to get a sense of where he was going to go,” Cooney said. 

 

Wrisley went to Cooney’s right, and the keeper dove to deny his Pacer opponent in the first round of the shootout, giving Monument Mountain a 1-0 lead after Mason Whiteman opened with a make.

 

The Spartans opened round two by hitting a post, but on Chicopee’s second try, Cooney dove to his left to make his second straight save.

 

“The second save, his eyes gave it away,” Cooney said. “He looked to the right, and then he looked at me, and I kind of just knew he was going that way.”

 

Both Monument Mountain’s Luke Guerrero and Chicopee’s player converted in the third round. And Ben Zdziarski fired a shot past a diving keeper in round four to give Monument Mountain a 3-1 lead in the best-of-five shootout.

 

That meant Chicopee had to make its last two shots to have even a chance, but its fourth attempt went off a post, touching off a celebration for the Spartans, who reached a regional final for the first time since the current Western Mass tournament format was put in place in 2021.

 

In terms of the MIAA Division 4 State Tournament that gets underway next week, Thursday’s result goes in the books as a 2-2 tie for seeding purposes; Western Mass games are counted as regular season affairs for purposes of state rankings.

 

But even that stalemate was a win of sorts for Monument Mountain, which started the night as the second-ranked team in D4 and held its own against the Pacers, who were ranked fourth in D3 in the most recent in-season power rankings.

 

Chicopee (12-4-2) rallied from a pair of one-goal deficits to get to overtime at Szot Park.

 

The Spartans opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Whiteman set up Sean Collins with a pass to the left side of the 18.

 

About 10 minutes later, Cooney (five saves in regulation) denied a shot to keep the one-goal lead. But in the 23rd minute, Chicopee’s Abdulwahhab Alnuaimi found a little space on the right side of the 18 and finished to level the score.

 

That is where it stood at half-time, but Monument Mountain opened the second half with a goal just four minutes in.

 

Whiteman scored on a one-timer at the top of the 18 on a ball that deflected off a Chicopee defender after Collins sent it into the middle from the right wing.

 

Collins keyed the attack most of the night for Monument Mountain, who took advantage of the Pacers’ focus on Whiteman.

 

“He’s tough to contain,” Monument Mountain coach Matt Naventi said of Collins. “Belchertown [in the quarter-finals] did their homework and actually man-marked him through the duration of that game. So he knows he’s going to have a lot of pressure.

 

“He had a little bit more freedom tonight, which I was kind of surprised with. But we’ll take it for sure if they’re going to give us that much flexibility.”

 

Unfortunately for the Spartans, Chicopee answered right away with a goal less than a minute later to tie it, 2-2.

 

“Calvin [Cooney] made a mistake to concede that second goal, but he certainly made up for it by stopping two of the best players in Western Mass on penalties to start us off there,” Naventi said. “He got redemption.”

 

And the Spartans got a strong defensive effort on a night when it needed to improvise a little.

 

“We had a pretty good game plan about how to contain their two players, and Dionici [Mendoza Lopez] got hurt early on in the game, and he was the key to that plan. He was man-marking the Wrisley kid, and I think we would have managed it pretty well. But we just had to adjust.

 

“The guys in back did a great job. Ben [Zdziarski] did such an excellent job on him throughout the remainder of the game.”

 

Monument’s best chance to retake the lead in regulation came in the 68th minute, after Collins was fouled deep on the right wing. His free kick found Whiteman in the 18, but Whiteman’s header was just a little bit over the crossbar. The Spartans had a couple of corner kicks back-to-back moments later, but the first was played over the end line by a Chicopee defender and Pacer keeper Zach Yarovoy caught the second.

 

Monument Mountain generated the only shot on goal of either 10-minute sudden death overtime period, and the two teams went to the shootout to decide who takes on top-seeded Pope Francis, a 5-1 winner over Pittsfield on Wednesday in the other semi-final.

 

“Just to get to play Pope in the final is going to increase our strength of schedule,” Naventi said of the Cardinals, who earned a 2-1 win when the teams played in the regular season. “I think with the result tonight we’ve solidified at least top four in the state. I’m hoping.

 

“Pope’s going to be a battle. I’m hoping we can push it to Monday, but I don’t know exactly what they’re going to decide. We could use a couple of days to get guys healthy.”