Mount Greylock Boys Blank Hoosac

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — After failing to make the most of a dominant first half and starting the second half by giving up some dangerous scoring chances, the Mount Greylock Regional High School boys soccer team needed a wakeup call on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Coach Blair Dils was there to sound the alarm.

 

"I hate using the timeout," Dils said after the Mounties earned a 2-0 win over Hoosac Valley on John T. Allen Field.

 

"I think sometimes we have difficulty getting up for an afternoon game, especially after a series of night games, but that's no excuse. We knew Hoosac was going to be pesky and try to upset our rhythm. We had to not get frustrated. To a certain degree, they succeeded in doing that by making us a little frustrated."

 

And perhaps a little nervous after a sluggish start to the second half.

 

But 6 minutes, 29 seconds after that timeout, Eric Hirsch scored from the top of the box to make it 2-0, and the Mounties never looked back.

 

"In the first half, we completely dominated possession," Hirsch said. "They had no chances.

 

"And then we just got a little bit sloppy a couple of times ... all over the field. We gave up a kind of stupid opportunity, which fortunately they missed, and Cal made a couple of big saves back there.

 

"[Dils] called a timeout just to kind of get us back in it. We needed a little break. We came back out, got the goal quickly, and then we were able ot finish the game from there."

 

Mount Greylock (3-0-1) got the game-winning goal from Sam Dils and five saves from sophomore goalkeeper Cal Filson, who recorded his first career shutout.

 

Hoosac (1-2) got seven saves from Colby Ells and some much needed confidence against one of the top programs in Western Massachusetts and a yardstick by which all Berkshire County teams are judged.

 

"I will take it, actually," Hoosac coach Camilo Bermudez said. "[My players] probably don't want to hear this, but we played with them. We competed. Two years ago, this was 10-0. You want to play a defensive game with a couple of breakaways.

You had a defensive game. You had a couple of breakaways. But we didn't make 'em.

 

"You start rolling into some of these Southern Division games, and you can build from this. It's never good to lose, but to compete against a team like Mount Greylock, I'll take it. Maybe we'll see them again in the tournament."

 

The Mounties started the game strong, getting on the board in the 11th minute.

 

Felix Kershaw sent a through ball from about 25 yards out into the left side of the box for Dils, who fired a shot inside the far post for his third goal of the season.

 

Mount Greylock continued to dominate from there but had to be satisified with a 1-0 lead at half-time. Perhaps its best first-half chance to extend the lead came in the 20th minute when Benni McCommish fed Hirsch with a through ball that drew Ells off his line, but Hirsch's shot was just wide.

 

For the game, Mount Greylock had 30 shots; 11 were on target. But Hirsch said accuracy is not a concern for the Mounties.

 

"A lot of our shots today were from outside the 18, and hit, I don't know, three posts," he said. "So those balls are just a little off. If they go in, five [goals] for 30 isn't a bad percentage. I think our finishing is going to be fine. We've scored a lot of goals this season.

 

"[Hoosac] played really hard defense, and we got unlucky a couple of times."