PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Frontier’s Jack Cusson stopped the final shot of the night Saturday to give the Red Hawks a 4-3 penalty kick shootout win and a victory over third-seeded Pittsfield in the Division 4 State Tournament.
No. 14 Frontier advances to face No. 6 Tyngsborough in the quarter-finals after Pittsfield ended its season with a record of 10-6-4.
The teams went to overtime tied, 3-3, and after 20 scoreless minutes, they needed an extra round of PKs to decide things.
Frontier’s William Reading, his team’s sixth shooter, started the shootout’s sudden death phase with a goal. Cusson, a ninth-grader who made eight saves in regulation, then made the biggest save of the night to extend his team’s season.
The Generals got to OT on the strength of a one-goal, two-assist performance by Kyle Cardoso and a never-say-die attitude.
Pittsfield trailed twice in the second half but came back each time, the last time on a Drake Thompson goal with 6 minutes, 37 seconds left in regulation to make it 3-3.
“It’s what we’ve been doing all year long for the most part,” PHS coach Ryan Wanek said of the second-half comebacks. “Especially the second half of the year, when we’ve given up a lot of goals. … But the way our team has been responding to giving up those goals and then knowing, themselves, down deep believing that they still have a shot and they’re still the better team – they can still come out and try to win this thing.
“I mean, I can’t ask for anything more than that as a coach, that’s for sure.”
The Generals opened the scoring in the eighth minute of play. Cardoso set up Owen Klatka to give their team a 1-0 lead.
But Frontier got the equalizer six minutes later when Eric Larsson scored on a centering pass from the right wing.
The teams played the next 26 minutes without allowing another goal and went to half-ftime tied, 1-1.
The Red Hawks then caught a break early in the second half when Pittsfield was whistled for a handball in the 45th minute. Larsson converted the penalty kick to put the visitors on top, 2-1.
Pittsfield then got a header by Cardoso off a Gustavo De Oliveira corner kick to tie it up again in the 58th minute.
But seven minutes later, Frontier’s Ian Paciorek converted a cross from the left wing to give the Hawks their second lead of the half at 3-2.
In the 74th minute, Cardoso took a ball at the top of the 18, ran in and slid a pass across the 6-yard-box for Thompson, who buried a shot past a diving keeper to tie the game for a third time at 3-3.
Pittsfield keeper Connor Devine kept things tied with two of his nine saves in the second sudden-death overtime session, sending things to PKs.
Devine then made a diving save at left post to start the shootout and give the Generals a big lift.
“That first one’s always huge,” Wanek said. “I mean, the actual first penalty. … Personally, as a coach, I like to go first. So, knowing that, I knew we need to make a save in order to get the confidence for those next kickers coming up.
“So I really thought that first save was actually going to be kind of like the little turning point in the penalty situation.”
Unfortunately for the Generals, Frontier grabbed the momentum right back when Cusson stopped the Generals’ first shot.
Both teams were successful in round two of the best-of-five shootout, but Pittsfield was high of the bar in Round 3. Frontier then hit a crossbar to start Round 4, and De Oliveira was successful to tie the shootout at 2-2.
Both shooters converted in Round 5, setting the stage for sudden death.
Although Pittsfield fell short of its goal of bettering last year’s finish, Wanek was thankful for the run his senior-laden team gave him in his first year at the helm of the program.
“We would never have gotten this far if it wasn’t for those 13 seniors,” he said. “I wouldn’t be a decent coach without those 13 seniors. They’re basically my 13-man support staff. They were massive this year.
“They’re the ones that flipped the switch and made this into a very good program, a program that’s going to be good for years to come.”
