Mount Greylock Wins Title at Mount Anthony Tourney
BENNINGTON, Mass. – The Mount Greylock girls soccer team Saturday defended its Mount Anthony Patriot Tournament title.
Because defense might be the thing this Mounties unit does best.
Tanley Drake had a goal and an assist, and Noemi Evans made 12 saves to lead Mount Greylock to a 2-0 win over Burr and Burton as the Mounties won the early-season four-team tourney for the third straight year.
For the third straight game to open the season, Mount Greylock’s defense was dominant.
In 240 minutes, the Mounties have conceded just one goal, and that one came with a 4-0 lead in the second half of Wednesday’s tournament opener against the host Patriots.
“We’re happy about that, that’s for sure,” Mount Greylock coach Blair Dils said of his team’s defense in the first week of the season. “You can just see the hard work that Rowan [Apotsos] and Maria [Welch] are doing and Bridge [Igoe] and Islay [Campbell], they really carried us tonight.
“Then, obviously, Tanley is pretty gifted up top. So that’s a fairly simple equation: If you play that good defense and give Tanley an opportunity to score … “
And Drake took advantage of the very first chance she got, slipping a shot into the net off a run on the right wing 19 seconds into the game.
“We’ve been in that same situation where a team tic-tac-toes their way through you in the first minute, and you’re kind of stunned,” Dils said. “That sequence of one-touch passing leading to that, the through ball and the finish was probably our best sequence of passing we’ve had all season. It was great to see.”
And it added to Drake’s count of six goals in the early going this fall, helping her earn the tournament’s most outstanding offensive player award.
Her fellow junior Apotsos was recognized as the tournament’s outstanding defensive player.
And Apotsos made a couple of plays in the first half of Saturday’s game that showed why. First, in the 15th minute, it looked like a Bulldog attacker had a shot at an empty net before Apotsos ran in to make the clear. With about three minutes left in the half, the all-state sprinter ran down a Burr and Burton forward from behind to break up an apparent breakaway.
At the other end of the field, Drake had a couple of strong chances to extend the lead before half-time, but either the Bulldogs’ Ella Downey (eight saves) was able to make the stop or, as was the case in the 27th minute from 22 yards out, Drake was just inches off the mark.
The insurance goal finally came in the 64th minute.
Drake won possession from a Bulldog defender about 2 yards from the end line on the right wing and fired a pass across the 6-yard-box to Lauren Powell, who one-timed the ball inside the far post to make it 2-0.
That breathing room came in handy as Burr and Burton turned up the pressure in the second half, firing eight of its 12 shots on Evans after the break.
“She’s very sure-handed,” Dils said of Evans. “You can see her confidence when a ball is coming in. She doesn’t get tight. She’s very loose with her hands, and, as a basketball player, she knows how to handle a ball, and she’s not particularly fazed by anything.
“These are her first starts as a varsity player. As a ninth-grader, she’s just shown so much composure, and we love having that stability back there.”
Repeatedly on Saturday, Evans made potentially difficult saves look easy by anticipating and putting herself in the right place to make the stop.
“[Assistant coach] Mike Russo works hard with her every day,” Dils said. “And she’s a really smart player and student. She just absorbs what he’s been teaching, and she’s done a really wonderful job.”
Mount Greylock (3-0) plays its first home game on Tuesday when it hosts Monument Mountain.
Photos from this game to come.