GREAT BARRINGTON — The Greenfield girls soccer team’s second straight trip to the Western Massachusetts Division 3 soccer tournament saw a tighter score than last year’s loss to South Hadley, but the Green Wave were unable to pull the road upset on Monday night.
Fiona Horan scored a pair of goals and seventh-seeded Monument Mountain broke open a one-goal game with three tallies in the final six minutes en route to a 4-0 victory over No. 10 Greenfield in the Division 3 first round.
Greenfield, which won the program’s first-ever league title this season when it captured the Pioneer North by two full games, finished its season with a 14-3 record. Monument improved to 10-5-3 and will play second-seeded Hampshire Regional in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Hampshire knocked off No. 15 Putnam, 12-1, on Monday.
For the second consecutive season, coach Tina Riddell’s Green Wave punched a postseason ticket. After a 15-year layoff between tournament appearances from 2003 to 2018, qualifying in back-to-back years was an accomplishment. Riddell said it may not be a two-off either.
“I think my team has played phenomenal this year,” she said. “My goaltender [Dina Samake] kept us in games the whole season. She’s a senior. She’s going to play in college. My team is primarily sophomores, so we’ll have a good turnaround.”
Fans barely had a chance to settle into their seats when Monument got on the board first. Horan picked up the ball inside the midfield stripe, carried it deep down the left wing and fired toward the goal. The ball hooked into the upper right corner, giving the home team a 1-0 lead it would not relinquish.
Monument had 15 shots at the goal in the first half, forcing Samake to make six saves. Greenfield managed only two shots and Monument keeper Helen Pajeski had no trouble making those saves.
For its part in the first half, Greenfield only made rare forays into the Monument end, and didn’t put any serious threats on Pajeski.
A Monument fan might have been a little nervous however, because a one-goal cushion is not safe, especially in the postseason when one mistake can change things in a hurry.
“You try not to think about that during the game,” Monument coach Jess Platt said. “You just have confidence in your team for being disciplined and sticking to the plan and just trusting each other. I felt we were making good passes … and that’s all you can ask for.”
The second half began as the first one ended, with Monument compiling scoring chances. But once again, Samake denied the home team.
The Greenfield keeper made two huge second-half saves to keep her team in the game. The first came with about 14 minutes left to play as Horan set up teammate Molly Flynn, whose shot was ticketed for the upper right corner. Samake punched it out. Then, three minutes later, Horan had a point-blank shot that went to the upper 90 on the right side, but Samake again made the save.
The dam burst when Flynn got her team-high ninth goal of the season in the 75th minute. Abbey Kinne and Horan followed in short order, and the home side had its win.
For the longest time, the Green Wave players tried to penetrate the Monument defense, but time and again were denied.
“We just couldn’t get that break, unfortunately,” said Riddell. “In the end, we were getting tired.”