AGAWAM, Mass. – The Monson girls soccer team Wednesday got off to a fast start.
And a strong finish by Mount Greylock was not enough to put a dent into a 4-0 Mustangs win in the championship game of the Western Massachusetts Class C tournament.
Addison Peterson scored a pair of goals for top-seeded Monson, which beat the Mounties for the second straight time in the regional final and handed Mount Greylock just its second loss of the season.
Peterson gave her team the lead for good when she converted a Ciara Monaghan assist in the second minute of the match.
Monson went on to score two more first half goals before Mount Greylock was able to level the field a bit after intermission.
“I think we were a little intimidated,” Mount Greylock coach Tom Ostheimer said. “We were hanging back a little too much.
“Going against Monson, we’re going against an aggressive, physical and really, really fast team – on the back end and on the front end. I think it shocked us to begin with. But I’ll tell you this, that second half, I thought we played them evenly. I thought we had a few good opportunities. I know we did.”
Mount Greylock keeper Mai O’Connor did what she could to keep the Mounties in the game in the first half, turning aside nine shots on her way to a 13-save night.
“This was Mai’s first game [in goal] since Drury on Oct. 2, so almost a month,” Ostheimer said. “It took some work the last few days to get her back in game shape, but she’s got a lot of natural talent and instincts. It was a lot to ask for her first game returning in a Western Mass final, but she showed a lot of character, and she was willing to play with an elbow injury and help us out.
“But I have to give it up to Livvy Eakin. We wouldn’t be here without her performance in the net over the last month.”
In addition to Eakin’s contribution in matches, Ostheimer cited her work with O’Connor with helping to get the junior keeper ready to return for the title match.
In addition to the shots that made it to the frame in the first half, O’Connor came off her line in the 35th minute to deny a scoring chance to the dangerous Hannah Murphy, a sophomore who already has more than 100 goals for the Mustangs.
Murphy did have an assist on Monson’s second goal, bringing the ball up the left wing and centering to Monaghan, who finished to make it 2-0 with just more than 10 minutes left in the half.
Then in the 46th minute, Monson got a key insurance goal when Lynzie Bailey’s corner kick from the left wing found its way to the back of net to make it a three-goal cushion going into half-time.
Monson, which outshot the Mounties by a 12-1 margin in the first half, continued to control play early in the second, but starting at about the 50-minute mark, Mount Greylock was able to keep the Mustangs in their defensive end.
Shots were scarce, but Mount Greylock generated enough pressure to give its fans some hope that a goal was coming against a Mustang side that knocked the Mounties out of the state tournament with a 4-0 win in last year’s quarter-final round.
Instead, it was Peterson who again found the net in the 68th minute to again give Monson a four-goal cushion.
“You know, I’m really proud of the girls,” Ostheimer said. “A lot of teams, when they get down 3-0, they give up. They start pointing fingers and the blame game starts up. Not our girls. They played hard until the final whistle.
“The second half, I was really proud. I thought we put some great, great stretches of soccer together – stringing a lot of passes. We played with a lot of confidence, and hopefully, we get another shot at these guys later on in the state tournament.”
Both teams have some work to do to set up that rematch. Earlier on Wednesday, the MIAA released the seeds for the state soccer tourneys. Monson received the second seed in Division 5; Mount Greylock was seeded fourth, meaning the teams cannot meet until the state championship game.
Mount Greylock will find out its first opponent in the state playoffs on Friday when No. 29 Mount Everett hosts No. 36 Rising Tide Charter of Plymouth in a preliminary round game.
