GREENFIELD — The Athol girls soccer team secured a 2-1 independent win over Greenfield at Veterans Memorial Field on Wednesday night. The Bears (8-5-1) took an early lead and had to hold off the aggressive Green Wave (1-11) in their second half onslaught.
“It’s always nice to jump out to an early lead,” Athol coach Tim Cleveland said. “That was nice. Once Greenfield scored there was a momentum change…Overall, I thought my team kind of stuck together. I had four subs going and I had none left at the end of the game.”
Sarah McCloud of Greenfield (right) and Isabella Tarara of Athol battle for possession, Wednesday in Greenfield. Credit: ADAM HARGRAVES / Staff Photo 
Alauna Choquette of Athol moves against the defense of Sarah McCloud of Greenfield, Wednesday in Greenfield. Credit: ADAM HARGRAVES / Staff Photo 
Tayler Bergeron of Greenfield (right) races up the field with Serena Nkengafe of Athol in pursuit, Wednesday in Greenfield. Credit: ADAM HARGRAVES / Staff Photo 
Tayler Bergeron of Greenfield tries to elude the defense of Hannah Cardoso of Athol, Wednesday in Greenfield. Credit: ADAM HARGRAVES / Staff Photo
The Bears had some injuries during the game. Toward the end of the game some players were playing out of position. The patchwork lineup did its job and kept the Greenfield offense out of the net.
Serena Nkengafe opened the scoring with a goal in the ninth minute of the first half. Nkengafe used multiple efforts to slice through the Greenfield defense before firing a shot that gave Athol a 1-0 lead. Both teams played scoreless soccer for the remainder of the first half.
Athol took a 2-0 lead in the 59th minute on an own goal.
That’s when the Greenfield offense began penetrating the Athol defense for multiple chances at Athol keeper Ava Adams. On Greenfield’s goal, Zephyr Jetzon raced down the right side of the field before feeding a pass to the penalty area. Tayler Bergeron settled and fired, beating Adams to make the score 2-1 with 28 minutes, 13 seconds left in the game.
“Got to be proud of how they fought right until the end,” Greenfield coach Ben Johnson said. “Being down early is not an easy thing to get past. But the girls showed some heart and got back to a one-goal game.”
Athol successfully shifted the momentum back to their side with two outstanding scoring chances. Nkengafe fed Maddisyn David who lined up a shot that hit the post. Just a few minutes later a bid by Nkengafe also hit the post.
The Green Wave celebrated Bergeron as one of two seniors on the roster. Valerie Bzomowski will get her senior night in Buckland on Friday night against Hopkins Academy.
A testy game reached a boiling point late in the second half when Jetzon picked up a yellow card after a collision with Athol’s Alauna Choquette.
“That was a pretty egregious play,” Cleveland said. “But that is what it is. Other than the last three minutes I thought it was a decently played game. We played within ourselves and played our game. We had a couple opportunities to score more goals.”
Jetzon had to leave the game briefly before subbing back in. Choquette left the game with an injury.
“I thought she was making a play on the ball,” Johnson said. “Got beaten a little bit from behind and there was a collision. I didn’t think it was anything outrageous.”
Adams had another impressive game for the Bears in net. Bergeron had several opportunities, but Adams thwarted most of them without giving up rebound attempts. Adams finished with 10 saves for the Bears.
Bzomowski had nine saves for the Green Wave.
