Hoosac Girls Finish Dominance of South

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
Print Story | Email Story
ADAMS, Mass. — Once the Hoosac Valley High School girls soccer team got its offense going, there was no stopping it.
 
Freshman Lily Kronick scored the game's first goal in the 34th minute, opening up the floodgates for a 6-0 Hurricane win over Lee on Friday night.
 
The victory completed an unbeaten season in the South Division for the Hurricanes and was the perfect sendoff for Hoosac's senior class.
 
Fittingly, senior Megan Rodowicz led the offensive explosion with three goals, including back-to-back tallies midway through the second half on Renfrew Field.
 
"This means a lot," Rodowicz said. "It's a game we're always going to remember. It's Senior Night, last home game, under the lights and it's for the South, too. It's a game we're going to remember."
 
Hoosac (13-1-3) was putting plenty of pressure on the Wildcats in the first 30 minutes, but the 'Canes settled down and sharpened their attack after Kronick took a centering pass from from Cali Romaniak about 25 yards from the goal, drove into the box and beat Emily Sands (13 saves).
 
"I think we started playing better possession play and started playing more like ourselves," Rodowicz said.
 
One measure of how well the 'Canes executed their offense: four of their six goals were assisted.
 
"We've been working on a very quick possession game with lots of one- and two-touch with movement off the ball -- just looking to split the defense and then strike," Hoosac coach Blair Mahar said. "We're building up on the strong side, lots of one-touch, quick passes and then weak-side mids making penetrating runs, and there's the play.
 
"In the second half, we were just getting it more and following our shots. Great runs, great passes. It just came together nice."
 
About five minutes after Kronick's game-winner, Madi Ryan sent Rodowicz in on a through ball up the middle, and Rodowicz converted to make it 2-0.
 
Kronick scored her second goal of the night in the 51st minute.
 
Then came two goals fewer than two minutes apart by Rodowicz to put the game out of reach: a one-timer on a cross from Alyssa Bush and a rebound off a shot by Alexandria Rousseau.
 
Marissa Felter capped the scoring with about 16 minutes left. She took a through ball from sweeper Courtney Hayer and made a run through the middle of the field before finding the back of the cage to make it 6-0.
 
Megan Richardson made two saves to earn her third straight shutout for Hoosac, which finishes the regular season on Monday at Mount Greylock before heading to the Western Massachusetts Division 2 tournament.
 
"We've played 17 games and we have one loss," Mahar said. "I don't know if I ever thought we'd be that good back in August, but I knew we'd be strong. To have a record like that going into Greylock on Monday, a big Northern team ... they're doing great in the North, and that will get us ready for Western Mass play.
 
"We're definitely playing the kind of soccer I envisioned back in August that we would be playing -- just a nice possession game with lots of technical skill."
Print Story | Email Story