Pittsfield Boys Come Back to Beat Mount Greylock
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Pittsfield boys soccer team got off to a slow, sluggish start Tuesday afternoon before the Generals finally got their heads in the game -- literally.
Three of Pittsfield's four goals came on headers in a 4-2 win over Mount Greylock on John T. Allen Field.
"The effort just wasn't quite there, we started off slow, we certainly weren't at the top of our game," Pittsfield coach Andrew Antil said. "I told them to beat these guys, we have to be at the top of our game; they're ranked higher than us, so we have to play our very best."
The Mounties were able to strike first Tuesday with 26 minutes, 54 seconds on the clock. It came off a set corner kick play; Naka O'Connor played the ball into to Benny McComish, who then sent it back to O'Connor just outside the 18.
O'Connor let one fly, sending it from the left side of the field to the far right corner and giving his team a 1-0 lead.
With 9 minutes to go in the half Mount Greylock coach Blair Dils called a timeout; Pittsfield used the time to regroup, coming back four minutes later to add the tying goal.
Jackson Rich found the feet of Louis Higuera who sent to the far corner out of goalie Cal Filson's reach to leave it tied 1-1 going into the second half.
"At that point my guys needed a little bit of a rest and it just started clicking after that," Antil said.
Pittsfield put the pressure on right from the start of the second half, but it wasn't until the 68th minute that it broke the tie.
It came off a header from Quinn Matthews; Rich earning the assist.
Three minutes later, on a free kick taken by Higuera, Shane Tierney got a head on the ball sending it into the net and giving the Generals a 3-1 lead.
With 13 minutes to go Mount Greylock used a timeout.
They started to get some good looks on net; Sam Dils had two great opportunities but came up short.
Finally with 9:11 on the clock, Greylock set up for a corner kick; where O'Connor came through again, cutting Pittsfield's lead to one and putting the score at 3-2.
"We moved a couple of guys around, we went to a little bit more of an offensive set and got some good looks, so maybe Pittsfield was a little slower to react to that, maybe we should have gone to it earlier," Dils said. "But then that fourth goal was the dagger."
Unfortunately, for the Mounties, time was not on their side. With six minutes to go Pittsfield added one more to give it a cushion to ride it out to the end.
Rich got a head on the ball off of a Tierney corner kick and secured the 4-2 victory and a Generals season-opening winning streak that has yet to be stopped.
"It gives us more hope, it gives us more confidence, which is great," Antil said. "We still have a lot of work to do, the season is young and we will see them again, it's nice to beat the team that has historically been dominant in Berkshire County, but we're looking for more than Berkshire County."
Pittsfield (5-0) plays Taconic Friday under the lights at Berkshire Community College. Mount Greylock (5-1) hosts Ludlow at 4:30 Friday.