Athletes of the Week Have Teams Unbeaten this Fall

One of this week’s iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Health Care Athletes of the Week has led their team to a perfect regular season. The other is one game away from doing the same.

 

Mount Greylock senior Celina Savage has been a dominant force in Berkshire County volleyball the last couple of years, helping lead the Mounties to the state championship game as a junior last fall.

 

This year, she has compiled nearly 250 kills in 17 matches for a Mount Greylock team that has dropped just three sets in compiling a 17-0 record.

 

On Thursday night, when Mount Greylock faced one of its biggest challenges of the season to date on the road at Wahconah, Savage had a match-high 21 kills in a four-set victory.

 

“Our biggest defense against Celina today was keeping them out of their system where it was hard for them to get a clean set to her, and when we were doing that, then we were doing well,” Wahconah coach Dave Lussier said. “Probably, a few times, we gave a couple of free balls that were a little too easy.

 

“And she’s gonna get her kills. She’s gonna get double digit kills. Once in a while, I told the girls to look at and admire them in a way, and just go from there.”

 

Savage and the Mounties, currently ranked first in the state in Division 5, open Western Massachusetts Class C tournament play on Monday with a home quarter-final match against Greenfield.

 

Kadan Tatro and the Hoosac Valley football team was ranked third in Division 8 football in the most recent MIAA in-season power rankings. The Hurricanes solidified that status with Friday’s 28-12 win at Easthampton to improve to 7-0 this fall.

 

Tatro is a big reason the Hurricanes are averaging more than 32 points per game, and on Friday, he rushed for three touchdowns and more than 300 yards from scrimmage against the Eagles.

 

Easthampton’s defenders got a good look at the back of Tatro’s jersey as ran off into the night on runs of 50, 52 and 76 yards in the win.

 

Afterward, he said that pulling away from defenses is a strength of his game.

 

“In seventh grade, I was a track star, breaking school records,” the Hurricanes’ senior said. “Speed always came naturally to me. So that’s just my strong suit.”

 

Hoosac Valley has one more challenge left in the regular season. On Saturday afternoon, it welcomes Lee, a 35-0 winner when the teams met in South County last season.

 

The last time the two Berkshire County and Intercounty South rivals met in Cheshire, Hoosac Valley came out on top, 42-15, on its way to a run to the state semi-finals in 2021.

 

The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.