MONTAGUE — A late goal from Yolvin Ovalle-Mejia gave the Turners Falls boys soccer team a 1-0 win over Hull in the MIAA Division 5 tournament Round of 32 on Wednesday night.
Turners Falls, the No. 12 seed, spent most of the game playing defense against the 21st-seeded Pirates. But as the game progressed into the second half, the chances began to present themselves for the Thunder.
In the 79th minute, the Thunder finally broke through. Noah Kolodziej started the scoring play when he serviced the ball near the penalty arc. After bouncing through some traffic, the ball found Ovalle-Mejia who controlled the ball past the goalie to find the net.
“Every play, every goal I celebrate,” Ovalle-Mejia said. “I do a celebration and it represents how hard I work through the season. Big thanks to my team. I wouldn’t be able to score the goals without them.”
After the goal, Ovalle-Mejia removed his shirt and deposited it near the corner of the field. He then picked it up and showed the Turners Falls logo to the frenzied crowd. The celebration drew a yellow card.
“I just thought it was the right moment,” Ovalle-Mejia said. “But it’s never really the right moment to get a yellow card. But it was amazing. I enjoyed scoring in front of my people. I did it because of my people. Turners Falls is what I represent.”
With Ovalle-Mejia on the bench because of the yellow card, the Thunder held off the Pirates without any real scoring opportunities.
“The crowd here at Turners Falls gets everybody excited,” Turners Falls coach Matt Kolodziej. “Yolvin gets into it. I don’t blame him. It’s a passionate game. It’s a dumb thing to do and we’ve already talked about it. He plays with passion and plays with his heart. It’s hard to be upset about it.”
Turners Falls (16-0-4) advances to No. 5 Rockport (10-4-5) in the Round of 16.
“We know that will be a tough game to play,” Kolodziej said. “With their home crowd.”
In the first half when Turners Falls managed just one shot on goal, the Pirates peppered the Thunder defense and keeper Jackson Cogswell with multiple legitimate scoring chances.
“They’ve been a solid unit all year long,” Kolodziej said. “All of them together have been doing a great job holding that back.”
The Pirates had several chances on set pieces. Hull’s Thomas Brasil drew a call just outside the 18-yard line. On the ensuing free kick, Cogswell was there to knock the ball out of harm’s way. On another free kick, Brasil sent a shot toward the right corner of the net. Cogswell went horizontal to deflect the shot away from the net.
One opportunity saw Hull with a semi-breakaway, but defender Kainen Stevens was there to knock the ball away. Cogswell then stopped a shot on the ensuing corner kick.
Cogswell made eight saves in the shutout.
“It felt like they had the ball most of the time in the first half,” Cogswell said. “I was really scared I was going to let one through. Luckily I guess I was clutch and made the saves. But I knew we needed only one because I wasn’t going to let one through. I had a feeling.”
Once Ovalle-Mejia scored, Cogswell knew they had the win locked up.
“He scored and I went nuts,” Cogswell said. “That’s when I knew we had it.
Turners Falls’ next game at Rockport is scheduled for Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
