Drake Leads Mounties in Battle of Unbeatens
DALTON, Mass. – Tanley Drake scored three times, and Nora Lopez scored twice as the Mount Greylock girls soccer team Saturday beat Wahconah, 5-1, in a battle of unbeaten teams.
The Mounties pulled away with four second-half goals after a back-and-forth first half that sent the teams into the break knotted, 1-1.
Mount Greylock (7-0-1) was the first team to score more than a goal against Wahconah (6-1) and continued an offensive onslaught to start the season. The Mounties have 37 goals in eight games, an average of 4.6 goals per game.
“I think that we work well together, so when we connect those passes, it leads to goals,” Drake said. “That’s how we get most of our goals, working together.
“We’ve been playing together for a long, long time, not just last year. So I think that definitely helps us keep going and winning.”
Drake, a sophomore, scored the game’s first goal in the 11th minute on an assist from senior Arianna Henderson.
But Wahconah had the answer a few minutes later.
Anna Doyle’s corner kick from the left wing eventually found Brooke Harrington inside the 6, and she finished to level the score, 1-1.
That is where it stood until the second half.
But, just as it did in the boys game to start the Saturday double-header, Mount Greylock took over in the final 40 minutes of the girls’ contest.
First, Drake beat a drawn out Rafi Canino (11 saves) to a ball in the 18 and put a shot into an empty net to give her team the lead for good in the 45th minute.
It briefly looked like Wahconah again would have the answer, as it did in the first half.
In the 56th minute, Wahconah’s Danielle Hagmaier took a try from just outside the 18 that went just over the crossbar.
“She had two [chances],” Wahconah coach Maggie Rivers said of that stretch. “And it’s a game-changer, I think if one of those lands there. We’ve been working on those kinds of shots. And they’ll start falling. They just didn’t fall today.”
Instead, Mount Greylock’s Lopez scored with 22 minutes, 3 seconds on the clock to give her team a 3-1 lead.
And then she set up Drake on a run up the left wing that ended with a perfectly placed shot by Drake from the top left corner of the 18 that curled under the crossbar to make it a three-goal margin.
“It was the Nora-Tanley combination that we’ve been really working on a lot in training, those two trying to find each other, trying to make runs that are complementary,” Mount Greylock coach Blair Dils said. “And they did a super job.
“Maybe there’s not a lot of build up in that, but the two of them really know what to do with the ball and how to find each other, and that’s something we’ve been stressing. It was great to see it lead to some goals today.”
Lopez finished the scoring with fewer than five minutes left by putting back a rebound off Canino.
Despite the four-goal final margin, both coaches agreed the former Berkshire North rivals are both contenders in a tough Grieve Division.
“We were really under some stress [at the end of the first half], and I didn’t think we were managing it super well, but then we came out with more composure, I would say, in the second half,” Dils said.
“I think there’s a lot of challenging games ahead for us. We’re happy to come out of the first [eight] games in pretty good shape. Obviously, it’s hard to find fault in that record.”
“I know that when [the Mounties] get] on net, they are very consistent around the net,” Wahconah’s Rivers said. “I think their shots are a little more accurate than us. I think, physicality wise, we’re right there with them. I think they’re a little more accurate up top, and we’ve just got to clean it up around there and we’ll be fine.”
The teams meet in Williamstown on Oct. 15.
Mount Greylock’s next game is on Monday against Drury.
Wahconah is at Monument Mountain on Monday.