AGAWAM — East Longmeadow showed why it was the top seed in the Western Mass. Class B field hockey tournament on Monday.
Taking on third-seeded Franklin Tech in the finals, the Spartans got out to a blazing start, outshooting the Eagles 5-1 in the opening quarter. They kept the ball on the Tech side of the field which ultimately led to a goal on a penalty stroke.
East Longmeadow tacked on two goals during a one-minute stretch in the second quarter and tallied twice in the second half. The Eagles were unable to get one in the back of the cage, with the Spartans winning the Class B title with a 5-0 victory at Agawam High School.
“They’re a great team,” Franklin Tech coach Rian Lovett said. “Hats off to them, they deserved this. They’re crisp, they’re a turf team and they do all the little things right. We don’t have the opportunity to play on turf every day. We tried to emulate it as much as we could but there’s only so much you can do in the gym or on grass.
“We don’t play teams like that very often,” Lovett added. “We competed, we fought and we didn’t give up. At the end of the day, they deserved the win.”
It was a step up in competition for the Eagles (16-2-1), which quickly realized that things they were able to do against other teams weren’t going to work as well against the unbeaten Spartans (19-0).
One of those was jumping in to make a play defensively, where East Longmeadow was able to take advantage of Tech’s aggressiveness.
“We talked about not biting but it’s hard not to bite,” Lovett said. “We’re a team that does that because we can do it against the teams we play. It burned us today. That’s going to happen.”
After drawing a foul in the circle, Spartan Ava Gile stepped up and smashed the penalty stroke into the bottom left corner of the cage, just past the outstretched stick of Eagle goalie Madison Markwell, to give East Longmeadow a 1-0 lead with 9:08 to go in the first.
Franklin Tech drew a corner with no time remaining in the first quarter, their first of the game, and nothing came of it as the Spartans cleared the ball to end the quarter without any damage done.
It was all East Longmeadow in the second quarter. With 7:22 to play in the frame Spartan Tess Denault raced up the field and smashed a shot on goal that was deflected in by Emma Gosselin to give East Longmeadow a two-goal cushion.
The Spartans struck again just 36 seconds later. Gile stole the ball in the Tech end of the field, dribbled it just inside the circle and blistered a shot in from the left side to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead.
Franklin Tech once again closed out the quarter with a corner, but weren’t able to get anything out of it.
East Longmeadow scored its fourth goal with 9:41 to go in the third. Off a corner, the ball was sent over to Gile, who dribbled in and flicked a pass across the crease to Gosselin, who tapped it home to add to the Spartan lead.
Gosselin recorded a hat trick in the fourth quarter, smashing in a shot following a pair of saves by Markwell to give East Longmeadow its 5-0 lead with 8:50 to play.
Markwell finished with 12 saves for the Eagles. Franklin Tech put two shots on goal while the Spartans held a 12-2 corner edge.
The good news for the Eagles is that the season isn’t over yet. Franklin Tech will play in the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament, which begins later this week.
Getting to play a team of East Longmeadow’s caliber is something Lovett said will pay dividends down the line.
“This is going to be a great learning curve going into states,” Lovett said. “I think we can contend in states. I think we’re a good team. We have good players, we have good skill, our goalie is great. We can use this as a building block for the rest of the season. We’re not done and this isn’t over. Does it suck to lose? Absolutely. But, there’s more field hockey to be played.”

