WESTHAMPTON — Overmatched before it was even seeded in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 tournament, the Franklin Tech boys soccer team fell to No. 5 Hampshire Regional, 8-0, in the first round of the postseason on Monday night.
The 12th-seeded Eagles finished their season with a final record of 9-8-2. Playing in the Division 3 tournament, instead of Division 4, has not yielded competitive performances in recent years.
“We’re playing in the wrong division,” Franklin Tech coach Kurt Richardson said.
The Eagles lost their previous three tournament openers by 7-0, 7-1 and 8-1 margins.
“What can we do? We’re playing a superior soccer school,” Richardson said of the matchup with Hampshire. “No one appreciates what (vocational) schools have to go through. We’re never going to be up to this competition.”
The fifth-seeded Raiders went ahead 13 minutes into Monday’s postseason opener. Austin Bush beat the Eagles defense down the middle of the field in transition and unleashed a shot at the six-yard box. It caromed off the crossbar then bounced off a Franklin Tech defender across the goal line to make it a 1-0 game.
Cade LaChapelle doubled the Raiders lead about 15 minutes later from Bush. That started a run of three Hampshire goals in two minutes. Grady Fern buried a rebound standing on the six-yard box, and Bush converted a penalty kick in the 30th minute.
“Our confidence was up, and we just started rolling goals,” Hampshire senior Gus Brasil said.
Aidan Miklasiewicz made it 5-0 from close range on a feed from Bush two minutes before halftime.
“Our defense played as well as it could,” Richardson said. “There were some crazy bounce goals that I don’t think it would have mattered who was in goal.”
Franklin Tech keeper Nikolas Martin acquitted himself well despite the onslaught. It was his first time between the pipes after Eagles starter Matt Regnier went down with an injury during practice on Sunday.
“We had a kid who’d never played goal in the goal,” Richardson said. “It’s as good a result as I would have expected.”
Mark Craig opened the second-half scoring with a volley near the 18-yard box from Matt Solan in the 57th minute. Aidan White put the Raiders up 7-0 in the 73rd minute, and about a minute later, Luke Gaida put a bow on the match with Hampshire’s eighth tally of the night.
The Raiders (9-4-4) will travel to play No. 4 Wahconah in the Division 3 quarterfinals at a time and date to be determined.