It’s on to the Tom Suchanek Region, where the Greenfield Recorder’s ‘Greatest Teams’ bracket enters its third day of opening-round games.
The left side of our bracket has been cut in half, and we’ll continue that trend today and Thursday where the overall field will then number 32. Friday’s paper is slated to have a special feature on our ‘snubs’ — teams that just missed the field or deserved better acclaim. Second round games open next week.
With that in mind, let’s get right into it in the region named for the long-time Greenfield baseball skipper.
Channeling their best UMBC vibes, 16th-seeded Mohawk alpine skiing from 2003 nearly slayed one of the pre-tournament favorites in the opening round.
The Warriors rode the 1-2 punch of Jason Small and Ryan Lawless to snag a late advantage, only to watch as top-seeded 1996 Pioneer boys hoop rallied in overtime for a heart-stopping victory in the Suchanek Region.
Mohawk, which won its 16th consecutive A Division championship and sixth state title in 2003, was admittedly woefully underseeded here. The Warriors, who dominated the state alpine scene throughout the ’90s and ’00s, had previously captured state crowns in 1984, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 1998. The five-year absence was remedied with perhaps the program’s most-dominant effort in ’03. In that meet, Mohawk used three top-10 finishes in the morning slalom run to bolt out to a 30-point lead, then added four top-35 finishes in the afternoon giant slalom to complete “the most dominating performance I’ve seen in my 15 years of doing this,” said Bob Furey, former MIAA meet director and Concord-Carlisle High School coach.
But No. 1 Pioneer made the plays down the stretch. This is a team hoping to make a deep tourney run, as it did in the 1996 Division 3 state tournament when it knocked off Winchester, 75-68, to win the program’s first-ever MIAA crown.
Former Panthers have their sights set on getting their ’96 team through the bracket. We’ll certainly dive deeper into their exploits during their Round of 32 matchup.
“(That team) brought the community together,” offered Seth Kratz, a 1,000-point scorer who was a senior on that ’96 squad, via email earlier this week. “There was a new interest and excitement in the sport, the team and school. We packed the stands every game and sometimes the gym would reach capacity and spectators would have to watch through the windows. This actually forced us to have to play our tournament games in a bigger gym at NMH. Coming to see our games was the thing to do and the thing to talk about.”
Peter Bergeron’s record-breaking senior season on the gridiron ended under unfortunate circumstances. The Greenfield quarterback was knocked out of the 1995 WMass Division 1 Super Bowl against Holyoke (a 47-16 loss) with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter after suffering a broken clavicle.
He exacted a bit of redemption in our opening-round win over the 1934 Athol baseball team.
Bergeron ran for 202 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Nate Malloy added two scores of his own to propel the ’95 team into the Round of 32 and a matchup with No. 1 Pioneer.
Bergeron, who posted rushing totals of 261 and 244 yards in the ’95 season, including a 42-point scoring output in Greenfield’s 42-37 win over Longmeadow, got the Green Wave back into the win column after the disappointing loss to Holyoke some 24 years ago. After a 10-0 start to the year that included a Suburban League title, the Wave fell to a dominant Purple Knights crew led by the incomparable Cedric Washington. The eventual Boston College star rushed for 352 yards and four TDs in the Super Bowl win.
Greenfield’s win came at the expense of eighth-seeded 1934 Athol baseball, which under the guidance of coach Tom O’Brien showed flashes of dominance itself 85 years ago. But that squad fell one year short of being able to prove itself on the state-wide stage, as the MIAA did not name state champions until the 1935 season when Somerville beat Lowell in the inaugural final.
Count Kathy Keefe amongst the many advocates for the 1988 Frontier girls basketball team.
The only Frontier girls basketball team to ever play in a state final, the ’88 club was an extension of its hard-nosed head coach, the legendary Vi Goodnow.
“There was something magical about that season from the very first practice,” recalled Keefe, then Kathy Smith, a junior guard for Frontier. “The previous year, the team had won the WMass championship and we knew we had the talent to make it to states.”
That premonition proved accurate. Keefe & Co. rode its talented core into our Round of 32, getting past the 2003 Greenfield golf team, seeded 13th in the Suchanek Region.
The Green Wave took the loss in stride. Senior Mike Hillman had himself a big day, as did classmate Jay Spofford, but Greenfield was unable to spring the upset.
Coach Irv Sanders’ club was hoping to replicate the success it enjoyed 16 years ago, when it put together a stellar day at Wahconah Country Club to win the program’s only state Division 2 golf title. Mike Hillman was the individual runner-up, while Spofford, David Donoghue and Jon Hillman all posted strong rounds to seal the title by one stroke over runner-ups Belchertown and Austin Prep.
No matter how the tournament run pans out for the 2003 Athol baseball team, they won’t be an easy out.
Such was exemplified by their Cinderella run to just the second-ever state baseball title in area history 16 years ago. That never-say-die attitude propelled the fifth-seeded Red Raiders into our Round of 32 with a win over No. 12 Greenfield field hockey (2018).
Tom “Big Time” Cummings lived up to his nickname in the win, smacking a pair of doubles and driving in four runs. Starter Jake Rigopoulos went six strong on the mound to help Athol march on.
While Athol advanced, it did not do so in convincing fashion. On the other end was a gritty 12th-seeded GHS field hockey team that was looking to rebound from a loss in the Division 2 state final just four months ago. The Raegan Hickey, Sam Smith, Audrey Bresciano senior trio went 20-3 and earned a spot in the program’s first state final since 2002, ultimately falling to Dennis-Yarmouth, 3-2.
“We fought ’til the bitter end,” lauded Greenfield head coach Erin Thayer.
It’s hard to remember now, but the Turners Falls softball program wasn’t always the crown jewel of Massachusetts.
Rewind back to 2004. The team had yet to win a state championship, and entered the Division 2 state final as a decided underdog to the softball Goliath known as Cardinal Spellman High School of Brockton.
But that team is seedly highly in the Recorder’s bracket for a reason. It won.
After losing in three previous state finals, the Powertown broke through for a 2-1 victory to win the program’s first-ever state title, and first-ever for a team from Franklin County at that.
That ground-breaking team finished 23-2 overall, and carried those good vibrations into an opening-round win over the 2000 Greenfield boys basketball team in Suchanek Region action.
“It’s just amazing,” said Turners senior Kelly Yankowski of the win against Cardinal Spellman, and presumably the win over the Greenfield basketball team to earn a spot in our Round of 32. “Not many people thought we’d be here, and even fewer people gave us a chance to win states. It’s history.”
The loss for the 14th-seeded Green Wave marked the end of the road for a team that also ran into a juggernaut in its 2000 Division 2 state final appearance. That would be Charlestown, which won the first of what would be four straight state crowns. And they did it in dominant fashion. Those four state titles? Won by an average of 26 points per game. Yeah, not terrible.
The 2000 final was an 87-57 win over Greenfield. The shoe was on the other foot for the Wave from the WMass title game, where the squad dismantled Hoosac Valley, 76-33. They got into the state championship behind a 63-56 win over Algonquin in the semis.
That Wave team went 22-3. Many predicted they’d be in the final game before the season ended, though as he has often done in his coaching career, Greenfield’s Scott Thayer downplayed his team’s chances throughout the 1999-2000 campaign. But even Thayer, who now coaches the Pioneer boys, couldn’t deny the loaded team he was able to put on the floor that winter. Guards Deyvehn East, Tim Burns and Billy Thomas could either start the fast break or set up the half-court game, and forwards Aaron Clark and Luke Martin had the ability to dominate the glass. Greenfield could also go deep on the bench, as Tony Carme and Billy Finn were capable subs for the guards and John Woznakewicz gave it a big front line and extra muscle.
Behind standout performances from a star quartet, the bracket busted in the Suchanek Region.
Beth Butler, Missy Butler, Nancy Hollister and Kara Rillings lifted the 1981 Mohawk girls track team to a surprising victory in the first round. The 11th-seeded Warriors, WMass Division 2 champions, knocked off No. 6 Mahar football (2004) to find a spot in the final 32.
The ‘81 title was the second for Mohawk, which also took home the 1976 championship. Head coach Dave Bodenstein’s team was the heavy favorite to bring home some hardware entering the WMass championship held at UMass on Memorial Day, 1981. The team didn’t disappoint. Rillings set a meet record in the 880-meters (2:18), while Missy Butler was the runner-up in the long jump and Beth Butler took second in the mile. Deidre Doyle also provided a lift, winning the 2-mile, while Hollister paced the mile-relay team.
It was a tough loss for a Senators team that ended its 2004 run with an exclamation mark. Mahar beat Lunenberg by a commanding 41-0 score in the Central/West Division 3 Super Bowl, finishing 10-1 overall. Quarterback Scott Woodward’s Senators became the first team from Recorder Land to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
Woodward threw for 1,402 yards in 11 games, completing 66-of-115 passes while throwing 15 touchdowns against only six interceptions.
The team’s lone loss? Well, that came to Greenfield. The Green Wave also reached a Super Bowl, falling to Leicester, 41-14, in the Division 2A title game. They handled the Senators, 36-8, early in the season, and offered some sage advice to the 1981 Mohawk track team in how to take down Mahar.
Abby Majewski smacked 18 kills, setter Nikki Wiseman dished out 34 assists, and Frontier’s 2005 volleyball team won a battle of firsts in its opening-round contest.
The Red Hawks’ first-ever state volleyball championship team powered into the Round of 32, knocking off another first-time state champion — the 1975 Frontier field hockey team. Both teams helped pave the way for future dynasties, but it was the volleyballers that won out in this first-round matchup.
Majewski, who accumulated 319 kills during her senior season, was aided by the work of fellow hitters Nelly Denehy and Alyssa Stankowski to nab the win. Libero Mandy Zajac was her usual steady self along the back line.
Frontier’s 25-16, 25-21, 25-23 swep of Mount Alvernia High School sealed the ’05 Division 3 state crown.
There was no quit in the 1975 field hockey team. Frontier, seeded 10th in our bracket, received offensive contributions from Karen Russo, Mary Pike, Shelly Boron, Cheryl Patterson and Laurie Farrick, while goalkeeper Kathy Radowicz stood on her head down the stretch to keep her squad alive. Frontier, which did not allow a goal in its postseason run to the first-ever field hockey state championship contested, wound up 18-1 overall that year.
That included a state final win over Weston in a game that went to double overtime and ultimately resulted in no goals. Frontier won the title thanks to a 9-1 edge in penalty corners drawn in the extra sessions. That tiebreaker certainly wouldn’t fly in 2019.
Never before had Greenfield won a field hockey championship — WMass or otherwise.
Then the 1989 team came along.
It was a season of firsts for the Green Wave. They beat powerhouse Frontier to win a WMass championship, then found their way into the Division 1 state final against Danvers. Behind two Tara Jelley goals, Greenfield stood atop the field hockey world in the Bay State with a 2-1 victory.
That championship pedigree got them past a team that in retrospect was very underseeded. The tournament committee put the 1984 Athol football team into the field as a No. 15 seed. That was a mistake, and the Red Raiders nearly exacted some revenge with a first round upset.
Athol capped an undefeated 1984 season with an 8-7 win over Hoosac Valley to win the WMass Division 2 Super Bowl. The squad wound up 11-0 under head coach Don Ferrari, but it was the Super Bowl game that really highlighted the thrilling campaign.
Trailing 7-0 in the fourth quarter, Larry McLaughlin pounced on a fumbled at the Hoosac 16 with 5:33 remaining. Three plays later, QB Mark Sullivan connected with Chris Ferrari for a 15-yard touchdown toss in traffic that pulled Athol within 7-6. That made for an interesting decision, and the Red Raiders pushed their cards all-in by going for the two-point conversion. On the play, Sullivan hit a wide-open McLaughlin to seal the deal and give Athol the 8-7 win to punctuate a perfect 1984 season.