Schnopp Scores Two as Pittsfield Tops Taconic
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Pittsfield girls soccer team Monday earned its first win of the season with authority, outscoring Taconic, 6-0, in the first half of a weather-shortened game at Berkshire County Community College.
Allison Schnopp scored twice in a contest that Pittsfield dominated from the get-go, outscoring the Thunder by a margin of 12-2.
But Pittsfield coach Hal Asher knows there still is room for improvement in the Generals' game.
"A positive result is always good," Asher said. "Getting the sense of scoring goals is definitely a good thing. My biggest worry is just the ball movement needs to be even quicker. And we need to have better sights of the larger game. We get confined to certain spaces in the field too much.
"I think [Monday] they had tunnel vision, kind of. They were ready to let loose and score some goals. I get that, but you have to make sure that you're doing the fundamental things to to move the ball around the field to be successful against some of the better teams we'll be playing this season."
Schnopp scored the game's first goal with an assist from Dezerea Powell to finish a Pittsfield corner kick opportunity in the eighth minute.
Cece Supranowicz made it a 2-0 game in the 17th minute, and then the floodgates opened as Pittsfield scored three times in a 10-minute stretch to put the contest away.
Tessie Tierney worked a nice give-and-go with Molly Pope at the top of the 18 to produce Tierney's strike to make it 3-0. Ellen Muller put away an assist from Pope to give Pittsfield a four-goal margin with 13 minutes left in the half.
Kyana Summers created some space for herself inside the 18 in traffic and buried a shot in the 33rd minute to push the lead to five goals. And Schnopp converted an assist from Randi Duquette to close out the scoring.
"It does [feel good]," Schnopp about getting the win to improve to 1-5. "We're a pretty decent team, so it felt good to get our first win."
Taconic slipped to 1-2-1 this fall, but coach Dean Bamford looked at the match as a learning experience for the Division 5 Thunder against the Division 3 Generals.
"It's what we want to be at," Bamford said of Pittsfield. "We want to be at the level where we can control games, settle the ball, move the ball. A game like this is a good challenge for us.
"We're a team that's learned to match them, not be afraid of them. It's a competitive sport. It's a physical sport. We just have to be willing to match them to it and learn. We're making mistakes. It's learning from them and fixing them."
Taconic Thursday goes to Hopkins Academy.
Pittsfield hosts Agawam on Friday.
Video: Pittsfield’s Allison Schnopp talks about the Generals getting their first win on Monday against Taconic.
Video: Pittsfield’s Tessie Tierney scores with an assist from Molly Pope in Monday’s win over Taconic.
Video: Pittsfield’s Kyana Summers scores against Taconic on Monday at BCC.
Video: Allison Schnopp scores the opening goal of Pittsfield’s 6-0 win over Taconic on Monday.