South Hadley Drops Wahconah in Western Mass Semis
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Allison Fleury had a hat trick, and the South Hadley girls soccer team Monday advanced to the Western Massachusetts Class B Final with a 6-0 win over Wahconah.
Fleury got the Tigers off to a fast start with a pair of goals in the first five minutes, converting an assist from Kelcey Zraunig for the eventual game-winner with 36 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half.
A Wahconah team that was riding high after a 2-0 upset of second-seeded Ludlow in the regional quarter-finals came crashing back to earth in a hurry.
“It just kind of took the wind out of our sails, and we didn’t really make any adjustments after that,” Wahconah coach Maggie Rivers said. “We just kind of played like were down, 2-0, instead of just refocusing.
“Which is a shame because, when we put our mind to it, we can really go out there and compete.”
It was not long until Wahconah found itself down, 3-0.
In the 16th minute, Fleury fed Riley Fisher with a corner kick from the right wing. Fisher’s one-timer put the visitors in a three-goal hole.
After being pinned in its own end most of the half, Wahconah earned its first corner kick about 30 minutes in, but South Hadley’s defense foiled the play and started a counter which ended with Fleury’s third goal to make it 4-0.
With fewer than two minutes left in the half, Fleury set up Zraunig, who finished to effectively put the game out of reach.
Wahconah did generate a little bit of pressure on the Tigers in the first 20 minutes of the second half. The high-water mark came when Brooke Harrington brought the ball up the left wing deep into South Hadley’s end and sent a cross to Chloe DiFazio, who took the first of two Wahconah shots on goal in the game.
But the latter stages of the half again belonged to the hosts, who got another goal with a one-timer off a well placed corner kick in the 64th minute to slip the sixth goal past Paetyn Tatro (11 saves).
South Hadley moves on to face Belchertown on Wednesday in the Western Mass Class B Final. The top-seeded Orioles beat Southwick, 4-1, in their semi-final.
Wahconah (11-5-2) learns Saturday who it will face in the first round of the Division 4 State Tournament.
“This was a good experience, to come down here,” Rivers said. “Obviously, South Hadley has tons of state experience and tons of Western Mass experience. So just to get our feet wet with it a little bit after not being here for three years is good for us, experience wise, to get the younger ones a little taste of what it’s like to be here.
“We have time to refocus [before states] and really work on some of the kinks that we saw today, the first touches, executing marking -- especially on the corners – stuff that we need to carry into post-season.”