'Canes Blow By St. Joe's in Second Half
CHESHIRE, Mass. — After a so-so first half in which Saint Joseph's goalie Kendall Smith kept her team in the game, the Hoosac Valley girls' soccer team turned it on after halftime, scoring six goals over a 28-minute span to run away with a South Division win at home.The blowout victory was the Hurricanes' fourth win in a row and gives them 10 points in the South Division standings, tying them with North County rival Mount Greylock for the division lead. The two teams meet up next Friday in a key division game at Hoosac Valley at 4 p.m.
While the final score was lopsided, the Hurricanes (7-2) had trouble pulling away from the Crusaders (5-6-1) early on. Smith, who finished with 18 saves in the game, kept the hosts honest in the first half, allowing just one goal to junior Megan Rodowicz in the 16th minute of play.
A impassioned speech by Hoosac head coach Blair Mahar lit a fire under his team, however, and the 'Canes responded by finding the back of the net six times after the break. Senior Danielle Beauchemin got things started, notching her sixth and seventh goals of the season six minutes apart to give Hoosac a 3-0 lead. Mahar then turned to a pair of young guns on the frontline to close out the game. Freshman Abby Chaput and eighth-grader Lily Kronick responded nicely, alternating scoring two goals apiece to finish off the offensive outburst.
The Hurricanes will now set their sights on qualifying for the Division 2 Western Mass. tournament. They can do that with a win in a home game over Frontier at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.