ORANGE — Delaney Parker scored six goals for the Mahar Regional girls soccer team against Drury High School earlier in the fall season.
On that day, the Senators beat the Blue Devils, 6-2, in Orange.
Fast forward to the Western Mass. Division 3 tournament on Tuesday night at the Woodward Complex, where the two teams squared off again in the first round.
Mahar beat Drury, 2-0, advancing to the quarterfinals.
It was obvious during the early stages of the game that Drury would not let the same thing happen again.
Whenever Parker possessed the ball and carried, Drury closed on her with multiple defenders. It was the case for most of the game.
That was by design for Drury. The Blue Devils did not mark Parker, but instead tracked her all over the field from multiple positions.
“We were concentrating on her tendencies,” Drury coach Maria Bartini said. “The way she drifts across the field, it makes it difficult to man mark. We had a couple girls keeping an eye. We practiced it.”
The Blue Devils used leading scorer Kayla McGrath to mimic Parker during practice.
“My striker has a similar kind of game,” Bartini said.
On Parker’s first shot, two defenders bracketed her and backer Tess Zoito blocked the shot.
“Our team executed our plan,” Bartini said. “We limited her to one goal. We played hard and we’ve shown great improvement against them.”
But Parker finally broke through the defense with a shot while falling down near the 18-yard line to give the Senators a 1-0 lead midway through the first half.
In the second half, Parker began setting up teammates while attracting defensive attention. At one point, Parker set up Sienna Moore, who hit the post.
With Parker bracketed and limited by multiple defenders, the Senators needed some secondary scoring and they got it from Carra Fitzgerald in the second half.
“It’s important to know that she can pass the ball to us in that situation,”Fiztgerald said of Parker. “Normally, she can take it all the way in. The defense was really pushing her.”
Fitzgerald stepped to a ball after a corner kick by Gracie Rich.
Mahar also had to deal with the absence of forward Micalyn Mailloux, who missed the match with a prior obligation.
Kayley Murphy stepped into a starter role under the bright playoff lights for the Senators.
“I love getting my name announced and then doing the high jump,” Murphy said. “It helps you get pumped up. It helps with the energy.”
Murphy marked McGrath, who is one of the leading scorers in Berkshire County, for most of the first half.
“I thought I did pretty well,” Murphy said. “Number 16 (McGrath) is definitely really good though.”
