Spartans Roll Past Frontier in Sweet 16

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – Midway through the second half of Wednesday’s Division 4 State Tournament game, the Monument Mountain boys soccer team had a two-goal lead, but Frontier had the Spartans on their heels.

 

Both things changed in the 40th minute of play.

 

That is when Luke Guerrero battled for possession in the middle of field, won the ball and found Lucca Hernandez on the left wing, and Hernandez threaded a centering pass to Sean Collins, who split two defenders at the top of the 18 and fired the ball into the net.

 

That gave Monument Mountain a 3-0 lead in an eventual 4-0 win that sent the Spartans into the state quarter-finals for the third time in four years.

 

Collins finished with two goals and one assist, and Mason Whiteman scored a pair. And while Collins’ second goal did not technically end the game, it definitely settled things down for the home team.

 

“In the second half, we were on a streak where they were kind of pushing us back there, so we needed that to relieve pressure,” Collins said. “That was big for us. I think it kind o turned the tide for the second half.”

 

Monument Mountain coach Matt Naventi agreed.

 

“We knew and expected at half-time that [the Red Hawks] were going to have to try to press to get numbers forward, and that we probably needed to weather a little bit of a storm,” Naventi said. “And they were able to. There were a couple of dicey situations for sure, but that third goal was key.

 

“If we gave away the third goal, and it’s 2-1, it’s a totally different story. And then the game opened up from there. It was kind of back-and-forth. But that’s what we expected. They were going to need to take their chances going forward.”

 

Third-seeded Monument Mountain (9-8-4) had all the momentum going for it in the early stages.

 

In the second minute of play, Hernandez got a header off a cross from Nico Pazmino that required Frontier keeper Mason Weiss to make a diving save. Two minutes later, the Spartans had an apparent goal waved off by an offsides call.

 

But there was no whistle stopping Monument Mountain’s third quality chance of the match at the 9 minute, 49 second mark, when Collins took a pass from Hernandez at the top of the 18 and buried a shot to give his team a 1-0 lead.

 

Monument Mountain continued to generate scoring opportunities, including a prime opportunity by Whiteman off a Collins corner kick. But the Red Hawks were able to stay within a goal until the 30th minute, when Whiteman took a through ball up the middle from Collins and scored to make it 2-0.

 

“Last game, we went into Southwick, and we thought we were going to win,” Collins said. “And for the whole first half, we didn’t score a goal. I think we knew we had to come different today. In the locker room, we were prepared. We were ready to give 100 percent. I think that was a big change, and it made a world of difference.”

 

But that second score also lit a fire under Frontier, which carried the play over the final 10 minutes of the half and took that momentum into the second half, keeping Monument Mountain bottled up in its defensive end.

 

That pressure culminated in a chance in the 59th minute, when a Red Hawk forward got off a shot behind Monument Mountain keeper Calvin Cooney. But Banyan Bourla was there to make the defensive save and preserve the Spartans’ second straight shutout and fifth in their last seven games.

 

“They’ve been great,” Naventi said of his defense. “They got a goal line save tonight. Calvin [Cooney] came off his line really well. He didn’t make too many saves in the net, but he came off his line and read some of the throw-ins and the corner kicks and set pieces as well, and that alleviates a lot of the pressure, defensively, too.”

 

About a minute after Bourla’s big play at one end, Collins scored his second goal of the match at the other end.

 

Whiteman then finished off the scoring with a strike from about 25 yards with about a minute left to go.

 

Now Monument Mountain sits back and awaits the winner of Thursday’s match between another Western Mass opponent, No. 27 Hampshire Regional, and No. 22 Westport, who each advanced with wins in the play-in round and the first round in the 43-team D4 field.

 

Monument Mountain’s road to the quarter-finals already has included two wins over regional rivals. Wednesday’s win, in particular, stands out.

 

“We were talking about this when we watched film: None of us have ever beaten Frontier in our high school careers,” Collins said. “I think that was big. They came in here and beat us [on Oct. 15] in a game we think we should have won. We had like 20 shots, and they had like two on goal. So I think that was big for us.”

 

Photos from this game to come.