Lenox Boys Fall in Penalty Kicks in Western Mass Final
WESTFIELD, Mass. -- From the littlest youth teams to the World Cup, there is nothing more frustrating in soccer than a loss in penalty kicks.
So there was little consolation for the Lenox boys soccer team after losing 5-4 in a shootout against Monson in Saturday’s Western Massachusetts Division 4 Championship Game.
Little, that is, except history.
“Three years ago, they lost 6-0 to Monson,” Lenox coach Camilio Bermudez said, referring to a Western Mass semi-final. “Last year, it was 4-1 [in the finals].
“So this year, you think about it, and it’s hard to tell them that this was an accomplishment in itself, but really … it was. The scoreboard doesn’t say that, and the trophy we have doesn’t say that, but it’s hard to express those things.”
The trophy reads “finalist,” but the final score after 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods was 0-0 going into the shootout, which may as well be called a crapshoot.
Top-seeded Monson (16-4-1) had a 5-4 advantage when Lenox’s try went off the crossbar and straight down, sending the Mustangs straight on to next week’s state semi-finals.
For Lenox (16-2-3), it was a bitter way to end a year in which it overcame a mid-season coaching change and the loss of a couple of key contributors to injury and a red card in the quarter-finals of the sectional tournament.
“You think about it, you lose your two best center backs, essentially, and you have to readjust in the tournament,” Bermudez said. “And it’s hard to put that into words.”