Hoosac Valley Repeats as Western Mass Champion
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Hoosac Valley boys lacrosse coach Jacob Anderson-Hall can finally rest easy.
Adan Wicks scored four goals, and Brady Auger had a hat trick Wednesday to lead the Hurricanes to a 12-6 win over McCann Tech in the Western Massachusetts Class C Championship Game on Gene Dellea Field at BCC.
“I haven’t slept since Wednesday, so I feel really good right now,” Anderson-Hall said as his players celebrated the program’s second straight Western Mass title.
What’s been keeping him up at night?
“Everything,” Anderson-Hall said. “How am I going to coach? These kids, they’re up and down. What am I going to do if one of them gets too low? Penalties? How’s our offense going to do? Are we going to shoot 30 percent? It’s stressing me out. Is my heart rate monitor going to go off at half-time?
“But the excitement, really. That’s the main thing. I was just excited to play the game.”
And now relieved, no doubt, that the top-seeded Hurricanes were able to get their second win over the season against their North County rivals and ninth win in a row overall to improve to 16-1.
Hoosac Valley led wire-to-wire but did not get much breathing room until it got goals from Auger, Wicks and Auger again in a 1 minute, 19 second span late in the third quarter to take a 10-4 lead.
The Hornets caught a break moments later when Hoosac Valley was assessed multiple penalties resulting in a three-minute locked man advantage for McCann Tech.
Brayden Villnave (two goals) scored in the final minute of the third, and Parker Hart (two goals) scored 11 seconds into the fourth to get the margin down to four goals.
But then the Hornets drew some penalties of their own, and they were unable to maintain the momentum.
Midway through the fourth, Wicks scored a couple of man-up goals to provide the final margin of victory.
Jayden Tatro scored two goals and passed out three assists, and Cam Odvar scored twice for Hoosac Valley.
“When one of our guys isn’t shooting well, one of our guys always steps up,” Anderson-Hall said of the Hurricanes’ balanced offense.
McCann Tech, which got two goals and two assists from Musa Thompson, took its second post-season loss in a little more than 24 hours after dropping a 9-8 decision on Tuesday in the State Vocational Tournament semi-finals.
Wednesday’s was the third game in four days for the Hornets, who went three overtimes against Lenox to reach Wednesday’s regional final.
“Without a doubt, I give all the credit to Hoosac Valley,” McCann Tech coach Marshall Maxwell said. “That’s a very good team. It’s a very well coached team. It’s a very well established program. … They played well, and they played better than we did today.
“We just didn’t have the energy that I think we would have had had we not played that game yesterday.”
All of that said, Maxwell was happy with his team’s turnaround from a 1-14 season a year ago.
“I’m exceptionally proud of these kids,” he said. “To have one win last season, and we had four returning players from the previous year … Then to find ourselves here in the WEstern Mass championship, find ourselves in a home game for the state playoff – I couldn’t be more proud of these kids. It’s who they are as people. They showed up. They care for one another. They care about the game. And they care about self improvement.”
McCann Tech (13-5-1) is seeded 30th in the Division 5 State Tournament field and will host No. 35 Dennis-Yarmouth in a preliminary round game on a day to be announced.
Hoosac Valley (16-1) is seeded No. 21 in D5 and will open tournament play at No. 12 Nipmuc.
“Honestly, I think we should have gotten [a state tournament win] last year, but I think we just fell apart a little bit,” Anderson-Hall said. “A couple of illnesses. It gets late in the year and their heads are somewhere else. But right now, over the weekend, I think I’m just gonna focus on what needs to be done to win a game.”