PITTSFIELD – To win big, you need players – rookies and veterans – to step up.

Tied after full time and two overtime periods, Saturday’s MIAA Division 4 Boys Soccer Round of 16 game at Berkshire Community College went to best-of-five penalty kicks.

Both Frontier and Pittsfield made 3-of-5 PKs to push the marathon contest to extra penalties. First up was Frontier’s William Reading, who fired bottom left. Pittsfield goalie Connor Devine chose correctly, but the ball whipped to the low corner too fast. 

That set up Pittsfield’s Drake Thompson, who fired low to his left. Frontier freshman goalie Jack Cusson flung himself, fully airborne and parallel to the ground. He took a heavy shot to the abdomen and kept the ball in front of him and out of the goal. 

Cusson’s big save sent the Frontier faithful streaming toward him as the 14th-seed Redhawks knocked off No. 3 Pittsfield, advancing to the Div. 4 quarterfinals via a 4-3 victory (the game was tied 3-3 after regulation).

Frontier (14-2-4) will play at No. 6 Tyngsborough in the quarterfinal round at a date and time to be determined.

“This is not an upset for us. That was the mentality we talked about all week,” said Frontier coach Evan Horton. “[Cusson is] a freshman. The plan was always for Jack to step in next year. But [last year’s goalie] Owen Babb is playing for Deerfield Academy. We have 10 new starters this year and one of them is Jack saying, ‘we need you to step up and play the role now.’ 

“He’s come up big for us every time he’s had to… He did so much tonight,” Horton continued. “It’s just incredible. Couldn’t be happier for him.” 

Pittsfield scored right out of the gate. The ball found its way to Gustavo De Oliveria, who passed it to Owen Klatka. He got through the defense and put the ball home for a 1-0 lead just under eight minutes into the game.

But Frontier responded quickly. Eric Larsson took full advantage of a 1-on-1 opportunity from the left side, firing right to knot things up 1-1 just six minutes later. 

In the second half, Frontier was on fire early on. The Hawks pressed and went up 2-1 when Pittsfield was called for a handball in the box. Larsson sank the PK with ease, just under five minutes into the second half. 

Frontier missed a breakaway opportunity just moments later and Pittsfield coach Ryan Wanek called a timeout. From there, the Generals rallied. De Oliveria took a corner kick and Cardoso went up and headed in a beauty to tie things at 2-2 with 22:34 left in the game. 

Frontier still had plenty of juice however, and kept getting good offensive chances. It connected when Augustus Radner had the ball on the left side of the goal and crossed it to Ian Paciorek, behind the blind side of Devine who popped the ball in for a 3-2 lead with just 15:36 left in the game. Cusson made his first hero save a few minutes later, leaping up and going full extension, getting one arm just high enough to barely tap a rocket shot over the crossbar. 

Pittsfield re-tied the game with just over six minutes remaining. Cardoso was on the right side of the net, where Cusson was, and he kicked the ball almost parallel to the goal, right to Thompson who neatly tapped it in for a 3-3 tie. 

Both teams had a couple of opportunities, but couldn’t find offensive success in the first or second overtime periods. In penalties, Devine saved the first Frontier shot, but Cusson saved the first PHS one. Frontier went up 2-1 on PKs before Devine saved another and De Oliveria and Renan Alves both made their penalties to force an extra PK for each team, and Frontier’s final heroics.