Wahconah Edges Drury to Go to 5-0
DALTON, Mass. – Danielle Hagmaier scored a late goal from distance to break a tie and send the undefeated Wahconah girls soccer team to a 2-1 win over Drury on Thursday afternoon.
Wahconah, which came into the match with 22 goals, generated 22 shots on goal and a number of near misses, but the contest hung in the balance until Hagmaier intercepted a Drury clear, took a couple of touches and launched a shot from about 30 yards that curled just over the outstretched hand of the Blue Devils keeper and under the crossbar.
The hosts carried the play most of the afternoon, especially in the first half, when they outshot Drury, 12-1.
But they went into the break tied, 1-1.
“Obviously, we would have loved a couple more goals,” Wahconah coach Maggie Rivers said. “But we know we were up there. It’s just finishing.
“We know we can score. … It’s just a bad day. That’s all it is. And we still got a ‘W,’ so a win’s a win.
“And their keeper played a heck of a game.”
Addisyn Shepard (20 saves) and the Drury defense, which allowed 14 goals in its first three games, held an opponent to just two goals for the second time in its last three and nearly pulled out its second tie in that span.
“It’s a young team,” Syid Uqdah said. “We’ve got one senior. Everybody else is young. So they’re starting to come on strong. We started with Granby, Greylock, PIttsfield – so our first four games were some of the toughest opponents there are.
“And we haven’t been blown out. They’ve been close. Out of those games, should we have won a couple? Yeah, we should have. But the soccer gods didn’t have it for us. … The keeper played great. Everybody played great.”
Wahconah set the tone early when Anna Doyle broke up the middle on a through ball and went one-on-one against Shepard in the seventh minute of play. Shepard came off her line to deny the scoring chance in the middle of the 18.
That is pretty much how the first half went, with Wahconah using its speed from Doyle, Brooke Harrington and Maddie Lee to create one opportunity after another.
It finally broke through in the 26th minute, when Doyle scored on an assist from Gianna Heilbroun.
The lead was short-lived however.
With just less than eight minutes to play in half, Wahconah was whistled for a handball on a rare Drury foray into the final third.
Megan McGrath took the resulting free kick from about 30 yards out and drilled a shot that eluded Wahconah keeper Paetyn Tatro to tie the game.
Six minutes into the second half, Drury’s Ella Bond got the team’s second shot on goal of the game on a counter, but Tatro made the stop to keep it 1-1.
In the 53rd minute of play, Lee made a run up the right wing and made a cross deep in the box that Shepard caught, and a minute later, Harrington had a try that just caught the post.
Finally, Hagmaier was able to break the stalemate with 9 minutes, 44 seconds on the clock.
Drury (0-5-1) will look for its first win on Monday when it hosts Pittsfield in a rematch of the Generals’ 4-2 win.
Record aside, Uqdah is happy with the way his team is developing.
“They’re a good group,” he said. “They’re young, but the talent and potential is there. We’ve just got to get out of our heads, and we’ve got to finish. … It’s close.”
Wahconah, meanwhile, sports a 5-0 record going into Monday night’s game against Easthampton.
A year removed from a 3-14-1 campaign, Rivers said she is getting the kind of performance she hoped for from her side.
“I went into the season cautiously optimistic, just because I don’t want to be overconfident,” she said. “I want them to have their own kind of confidence, and our leadership is carrying us through right now. We have some really good captains.
“We have some really good seniors that are still with the program that are kind of righting the ship right now. They’re keeping everybody engaged, and we’re practicing hard every day. And I think that’s really what the difference maker is. Obviously, we switched leagues, too, but I don’t think that’s the whole story.”