Field, Bresett Goals Lift Hoosac Girls Over Pittsfield
CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The Hoosac Valley girls soccer team Thursday got a game-saving play on defense at one end and a game-winning goal at the other in the span of about 15 seconds.
Moments after Alie Mendel made a defensive save to keep it a scoreless game in the 45th minute against Pittsfield, Ellie Field looped a shot under the crossbar on the counter attack to give Hoosac the lead and send it on to a 2-0 win and a season sweep of the Generals.
“That’s something we had talked about at half-time,” Hoosac coach Kathy Budaj said. “Our counter attack and our transition game was too slow. What was happening was our middies were coming back too deep, so we had nothing to push forward.
“That is what we changed in the second half, and you could see we had way more offensive push.”
After not putting a shot on Pittsfield keeper Haley Tobin in the first half, Hoosac Valley (7-3-1) put seven shots on frame after half-time.
There was nothing she could do about Field’s seventh goal of the year from the left-wing early in the half, and she had very little chance of getting to goal No. 2 either.
The second goal came off Hoosac’s third corner kick of the second half. Jess Halverson ended up with the ball high on the left wing, and she sent a cross into the box that Olivia Bresett headed home.
“We tend to not be too hungry in the box,” Budaj said. “It was good to see a goal off of something like that.”
At the other end, Kailynne Frederick stopped four shots, but she was caught off her line in the fifth mintue of the second half, and Pittsfield (2-5-2) was in a perfect position to take a 1-0 lead.
But Mendel made the defensive save that sparked her team for the counter attack.
It was the kind of near miss that is becoming too familiar for the Generals, who have been shut out in their last two games -- both against Hoosac -- and five times this fall.
“That’s been the season so far this year,” Pittsfield coach Andy Waluszko said. “I think we had at least four opportunities within six yards in and either it hits the keeper or the defense makes a great play. It’s been that type of a season, right now.
“We’re getting opportunities. It’s just not happening right now.”
Pittsfield continued to generate chances after it went down 1-0 on Thursday. In the 49th minute, Hannah Dargie sent a cross into the box from deep on the right wing that Frederick caught. Five mintues later, Frederick made a sliding stop on Lindsey Schnopp. Midway through the half, Britney Perkett took a try from the right wing off a corner kick that forced Frederick to make a save.
And back in the first half, Pittsfield had the only scoring opportunities of note in a period contested mostly in the middle third of the field.
Budaj has been emphasizing the need to play a full 80 minutes with her team, which came out to Thursday’s game with the No. 80 written on their faces. But the Hoosac coach was not happy with the first 40 against the Generals.
“I told them, ‘You’re better than this,’ “ Budaj said. “You’re slow, you’re not moving to the ball, you’re not winning the 50/50s. We got lucky a little bit.”
For Pittsfield, a season long run of bad luck was extended for another day on Thursday. It will look to change its luck on Saturday afternoon against a red-hot Wahconah team that has won four straight, including Thursday’s win over previously unbeaten Monument Mountain.
Hoosac Valley takes a two-game winning streak into Tuesday’s night game against Drury at Renfrew Park.