Slow Start Costs Lenox in Western Mass Semi-Finals

TURNERS FALLS, Mass. – The Lenox boys soccer team Friday rebounded from a disappointing first half but could not get out of the hole it dug as Franklin Tech held on for a 3-2 win and a ticket to the Western Massachusetts Class C Championship Game.

 

Jakob George made 10 saves to backstop the second-seeded Eagles, who advance to meet top-seeded Mount Greylock on a date and location to be announced.

 

Lenox (4-11-3) will get a week to regroup while it waits for Thursday’s announcement of the Division 5 State Tournament field; the Millionaires, who started the day ranked 19th in the commonwealth, are a virtual lock to make the field of 32.

 

Lenox will need to play a full 80 minutes to advance on the road in the state tourney. On Friday, the Millionaires needed a wakeup call that came in the form of two goals in less than a minute’s time midway through the first half.

 

Coach Jedd Hall said he thought his team looked a little dead coming off a Tuesday road quarter-final that was scoreless for 100 minutes before Lenox was able to advance in a shootout.

 

“I really think that the emotions – the physicality – but the emotions from Tuesday kind of carried us,” Hall said. “That felt like a final. … It just felt very flat in the first half [on Friday].

 

“No offense to Franklin Tech, but I think, technically, we’re a bigger, stronger, more disciplined team. We sure didn’t look like it in the first half. We were just walking around like zombies.”

 

The hosts took advantage on a couple of goals from distance around the 22-minute mark.

 

First, Nathan Gheorghita scored from outside the 18 for the game’s first goal. Thirty-six seconds later, Carter Leete launched a ball from about 40 yards out that floated in a fierce wind and eventually tipped off the gloves of Michael McLaughlin (three saves) before finding the net to make it 2-0.

 

Lenox responded to that challenge, getting a shot on goal from Dylan Blake moments later.

 

Blake then converted an assist from Renzo Marino to get the Millionaires on the board in the 26th minute.

 

It stayed a one-goal game until, with about four minutes left, Franklin Tech’s Cody Yetter played the rebound of his own shot deep on the left wing and made it 3-1 going into half-time.

 

With the wind at its back and a new sense of urgency, Lenox dominated the final 40 minutes, keeping the Eagles locked into their end of the field most of the way and earning an 8-0 advantage in shots on goal.

 

But the only goal came in the 54th minute when Blake completed his brace.

 

“The kid’s been an absolute machine,” Hall said of the sophomore Blake. “He’s strong. He’s smart. Dylan’s got a very bright future. His younger brother Camden, who is only an eighth grader, also has been playing great.

 

“My back line is solid. Our midfield is solid and our forwards. They all have to play together.”