McDermott Scores Twice to Send Mounties to Quarter-Finals
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – At full strength, the Mount Greylock girls soccer team is tough to beat.
In Tuesday’s Division 5 State Tournament Sweet 16 game, the Hull Pirates found out how tough.
Lily McDermott scored a pair of goals, and Mai O’Connor made nine saves as the eighth-seeded Mounties won, 2-0, to earn a spot in the state quarter-finals.
McDermott improved her season total to 12 goals in 11 outings for Mount Greylock, which improved to 17-1-3 with the win.
“She’s been nursing an ankle injury, and we didn’t start her, but she got in about 10 minutes into the game,” Mount Greylock coach Tom Ostheimer said. “I think there was some shock value to that. She surprised them.
“If they had scouted some of our recent games, they wouldn’t have seen her, because she was pretty much on the bench. She was our secret weapon off the bench.”
But McDermott was far from the only weapon against a Hull side that Ostheimer described as “explosive” and “dynamic.”
“We got incredible play out of the middle of our field with Jane [Skavlem],” he said. “She controlled the middle because they have a pretty good center mid, too. And our backline matched them with speed. They were really fast on the right side, and Maddie Powell did a great job on the right side forcing that girl as wide
as she could get her, and Mai made some incredible saves.
as she could get her, and Mai made some incredible saves.
“She got some action tonight, unlike the last game. She earned her shutout. She kept us in the game. But it took team defense to force them into lower angle shots.”
It was the second big test the Mount Greylock defense has faced in its last three games.
On Saturday, it will get a “makeup exam.”
Top-seeded Monson defeated Lenox, 7-1, in their quarter-final on Wednesday, setting the stage for a rematch of the Western Massachusetts Class D final, a 3-1 win for the Mustangs.
“It was a great team effort,” Ostheimer said of Wednesday’s win. “It’s nice to hold our seed and move on to get another chance at Monson. That’s all you can ask for.”