Hoosac Valley Boys Top Drury
CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The saying goes, "the third time's a charm." Well, for the Hoosac Valley boys soccer team on Monday, 
the fourth time was a charm.
the fourth time was a charm.
The Hurricanes were able to break a three-game run of 1-1 ties against the Drury Blue Devils Monday afternoon with a 1-0 victory.
The shot came in the first half with 2 minutes and 14 seconds remaining.
Steve Crouch crashed the net and was able to get a touch on a deflected shot off of Drury's goalie; the initial shot came from Paolo Kareh. Crouch put in the only goal of the afternoon, giving the Hurricanes the much anticipated victory over their rival.
"We were determined, this is an honorable opponent," Hoosac coach Mike Russo said. "We knew it was going to be a very hard fought match and we wanted to try and dictate the rhythm of the game, our rhythm as opposed to their rhythm."
The Hurricanes did a good job maintaining the play of the game in the first half, putting shots on net, finding open feet, and putting one in the net in the final two minutes, but in the second half the Blue Devils came out hungry.
"In the second half they [Drury] got into their game a little more," Russo said. "We flip flopped our midfield a little bit, plus they have a lot more depth than we have and our boys got fatigued there towards the en."
The Blue Devils had a lot of good looks in the second half between the combination of seniors Logan Rumbolt and Jake Daugherty up front and with underclassmen, Cover Massey, Jon Boland, and Max Daugherty.
"We put our strongest scoring threats up front and they were more concerned about it so they had more guys back and we started to control the midfield a little bit," Drury coach Jon Jacobbe said. "Our defense stepped up all day. The one goal they had, two defenders stepped up at the same time, and we let them behind our defense, but besides that we played good defense most of the day."
With Drury's defensive line holding the back field down, they were able to push the ball up and put pressure of Hoosac's defense, creating the looks on net and creating more offense then they had in the first half.
Unfortunately for the visitors they're opportunities came up short, resulting in a Hoosac Valley win.
"They worked hard, it was a hard fought game, and we couldn't get one to go. We have to to keep battling , we have two southern division games coming up so we have to focus on those and then we get Hoosac again later in the season and it'll be another battle," Jacobbee said.
Hoosac (1-0-1) will travel to Dalton Wednesday evening to take on Wahconah for a 6 p.m. start. Drury (0-2-1) will take three days off and face Mount Everett Friday afternoon in Sheffield at 4 p.m.