Hoosac Valley Girls Break Scoring Drought, Top Drury
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Hoosac Valley girls soccer team opened the floodgates in the second half to cruise to a 6-1 win at Drury on Wednesday afternoon.
Both teams came out strong, trading possession back and forth trying to get a feel for the game. The first real chance of the game came in the seventh minute from a nice through ball from Mia Gale to Claudia Bresett forcing a tough save from Mackenzie Dobbert. This looked to be the game plan for Hoosac (3-5-1) as they tried to send balls passed the high line of Drury (4-7).
Hoosac Valley continued to get chances, and it took all the way till stoppage time before they got a breakthrough. Gale once again sent the pass, but this time Allie Mendel was on the other end. She tucked it away to give them a 1-0 lead going into the half.
“We have been struggling to score,” Hoosac Valley coach Kathy Budaj said. “We’ve been playing good and outshooting teams, but we just haven’t put the ball in the net. We had some good opportunities in the first half that we didn’t convert.
“So it was nice to get the goal to give us that little bit of confidence.”
In the second half, the lead disappeared quickly with Kayla McGrath hitting a nice shot over the goalie’s head to level the game at one a piece. That was the extent to Drury’s pressure as Hoosac answered minutes later off a nice passing sequence that led to Gale setting up her second assist of the game to Claudia Bresett. The game stayed 2-1 for most of the second half even with Hoosac knocking on the door multiple times. Bringing up previous game issues coach Budaj had mentioned about not putting the ball in the back of the net.
It seemed her worries would fade away as Chloe Martel added some breathing room on an unassisted goal from the left side of the box. This goal eventually sprung Hoosac into a goal frenzy. The Hurricanes scored three more goals after that giving them four in the final seven minutes of the game. Five of its six goals in the game were assisted.
This was the second time these two teams met this year, and in both games Hoosac got the better of Drury.
“Our goal today was to unlock the door to the net because we’ve been struggling to put it in. It was nice to see and a lot of assists, which is the kind of game we like to play, make the nice pass and convert it.” Budaj added.
The Hurricanes hope they can continue this form in the next match as they face Belchertown, Friday on the road. Drury will look to end a two-game skid and get back on track Friday versus Mount Everett.
VIDEO: Hoosac Valley’s Alison Mendel scores the opening goal of the game in a 6-1 victory over Drury.