Mount Greylock Gets Wild Win at Lee

LEE, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock girls soccer team has scored 15 goals in its first two games.

 

But that was not the first thing on the mind of Mounties coach Tom Ostheimer after Thursday's 6-5 win over the Lee Wildcats.

 

"I always try to think in terms of what we have to do to get better," Ostheimer said. "We've got West Springfield coming up on Saturday and Pittsfield on Thursday, so our schedule is tough."

 

And if Mount Greylock (2-0) wants to keep winning, one of the points of emphasis will have to be shoring up the defense after Lee junior Maddie Graziano scored a hat trick in the second half on Thursday.

 

"We gave up a couple of crosses," Ostheimer said. "I thought we allowed [Graziano] to get possession way too often. But she's good. She had that nice, good, hard-angled cut and got to the ball first.

 

"As Lauren [Finnegan], the Lee coach said, you take that own goal away, and it's a 5-5 game."

 

AT the time -- late in the first half -- the own goal looked like it would be icing on the cake for the Mounties. They already led, 2-0 thanks to goals by Gabriella Orpin and Caroline Flynn when Sarah Stripp took a corner kick from the left wing with about three minutes left before half-time.

 

Her kick caromed off the leg of a Lee defender and into the goal past Brianna Hawley (six saves).

 

Instead of folding the tents after the dispiriting goal, Lee responded by charging out of the gate to start the second half.

 

Graziano scored in the first minute after the break to get her team on the board, and she added another a moment later off an assist from Karen Hernandez to make it a one-goal game.

 

"We knew our weaknesses early in the first half, and we made adjustments at half-time," Finnegan said. "We talked about what we needed to do, and you saw the end result: 30 seconds into the second half, we were scoring, and I think two minutes later we scored again.

 

"We know we have it in us. I think a lot of it is our youth and our confidence to play against teams we know we didn't fare so well against last year."

 

After Graziano's second goal made it 3-2, Mount Greylock responded when Caroline Flynn took a pass from Haley Reinhard about 30 yards from goal and made a run up the right wing before burying the shot.

 

Moments later, Reinhard set up Karen McComish for a left-footed shot from high on the right wing to make it 5-2.

 

Graziano converted a penalty kick to get Lee back within a goal before Mount Greylock's Melissa Swann beat a defender to a through ball and got behind Hawley to make it 6-3.

 

Karli Retzel made it 6-4 when she converted a cross from deep on the left wing to the middle of the 18. And Shannon Finnegan finished the scoring by knocking home a rebound off Mount Greylock keeper Tenley Smith (seven saves).

 

Things don't get any easier for the Wildcats, who host defending Western Mass D3 Champion Wahconah on Saturday.

 

Even though Lee is yet to come out on the right side of the scoreboard, Lauren Finnegan said she is happy with what she has seen from her team so far.

 

"When you look at how we played these teams last year, I think it was 5-0 we lost to Greylock and it was a 2-0 or 2-1 loss to Sabis," she said, referring to this year's first two opponents. "So for us to tie Sabis and be in a game with Greylock. I mean, it was anybody's game. At the final whistle, it was anybody's game."

 

Lee and Mount Greylock will meet again, in Williamstown, on Oct. 22.