Pittsfield Scores Late to Earn Tie with Mount Greylock

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- One of the Pittsfield boys soccer team’s big guys came through in a big way on Friday night.

 

Sam Higuera scored with less than two minutes to play to erase a one-goal deficit and give the Generals a 1-1 tie against Berkshire County North Division rival Mount Greylock on Berkshire Community College’s Gene Dellea Field.

 

“Sam’s just a beast,” Pittsfield coach Andrew Antil said. “He’s such a great player. And so we need him on the ball. That’s why he’s in the middle of the field. He’s one of the three big ones in the middle.

 

“If he’s not touching the ball, we’re a less team. When Patrick [Silva] went down, I told him, ‘Alright, time for you to take charge.’ You need to bring this into your hands, settle everyone down. You need to make it happen because we need you.

 

“And he came through. It was awesome.”

 

Peplowski crossed to Higuera on the left side, and Higuera knocked a one-timer into the upper 90 as the Generals snatched a point in the standings from the jaws of certain defeat.

 

Mount Greylock (3-5-1, 2-1-1), which got a late first half goal from Toby Foehl, appeared certain to continue a three-game winning streak before Higuera’s heroics. But Mounties coach Blair Dils was focused on the positives his squad could take away from the stalemate.

 

“Obviously, you get within two minutes of winning the game, and it doesn’t feel good to have one scored late, but they’re a good team, they had plenty of chances,” Dils said of PHS. “In terms of statistics, we’re happy with the result, 1-1. Coming down here on the road, these guys have been scoring a lot of goals -- four goals a pop or whatever they’ve been doing. To hold them to one goal in the final two minutes, we’re pretty happy with our defensive effort tonight.”

 

At the back end of that defense, David Falk stopped eight shots, including five in a first half that saw Pittsfield outshoot the Mounties, 5-3, but go to half-time down 1-0.

 

“And [Falk] had one of the worst warm-ups I’ve seen in a while, so we were a little nervous,” Dils said. “But he wrapped his head around it, and he had a nice game. He’s so quick, and he can get to balls. He takes command of the box. We’re lucky to have him.”

 

Emanuel Soza-Foias set up Foehl on the left wing in the closing minutes of the first half, and the Mounties’ junior curled a shot under the crossbar and over a leaping Avi Snowise (four saves) to give Mount Greylock the advantage.

 

Antil said his team was frustrated to come out of first half trailing despite having carried the play, but it kept plugging away.

 

“We had a number of headballs go wide and this and that,” he said. “But the thing is, it’s an 80-minute game, and you’re going to have to shoot it 10 times before you put one in, especially if you’re not getting shots on target.

 

“I’m very proud of the first half. I thought we did really well. The second half, we kind of lost our way for a bit.”

 

A late timeout by Antil helped right the ship and set the stage for the tying goal.

 

“We needed to shake it up,” he said. “It was getting stale. Everybody was either dropping way too far back or way too far up. Our formation was just not happening. So we switched up to something a little different just to make them more cognizant of: Where do I need to be? What’s my job.

 

“It just simplified everybody’s role a little bit.”

 

Pittsfield (6-1-1) takes a five-game unbeaten streak into Tuesday’s game at Wahconah.

 

Mount Greylock Wednesday looks to avenge its lone Berkshire North loss when it hosts Monument Mountain.