Mount Greylock Girls Come Back to Edge Monument Mountain
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The way the Mount Greylock girls soccer team is playing, no deficit seems insurmountable.
Three days after coming back from 3-0 to earn a tie against Wahconah, the Mounties Thursday erased a two-goal deficit to earn a 3-2 win over Monument Mountain on John T. Allen Field.
Madison Ross scored a pair of goals, and Isabella Nicastro made six saves as Mount Greylock (9-5-3) won for the fifth time in seven games and beat the Spartans for the first time since 2014.
“It’s been a great week for us,” Mount Greylock coach Tom Ostheimer said.
“I think what’s happening is: We’re getting down, but it’s not for lack of effort; it’s not for lack of possessing the ball. We seem to be at least playing even with teams and spotting them a couple of goals. … We felt confident that we could keep playing solid, good possession soccer.”
Mount Greylock, which started the year 3-3, is now four games over .500 with one game left in the regular season: Monday against a Hoosac Valley team that also has put on a late-season surge.
“I think what’s happening now is we’re really controlling the middle of the field well,” Ostheimer said. “With Ella [Dudley], Karen McComish and Clara McWeeny. Then we’re able to make some good diagonal passes to the outside.
“I think it kind of started with that Mahar game [Oct. 15]. They’re a strong team, but I think that didn’t sit well. I said to the girls, ‘This is what we’re going to face if we come to the valley. We’re going to be facing a team like this in the tournament.’ … Since then, we’ve been playing more inspired soccer.”
Monument Mountain took it to the Mounties early on Thursday, earning an early corner kick chance for Fiona Horan, who curled a shot from the right-wing corner into the net to put the Spartans up, 1-0, in the 11th minute.
Eleven minutes later, Meri Powell set up Aubrey Blanchard for a bast from 30 yards out that glanced off Nicastro’s hands and into the goal.
It did not take long for Mount Greylock to answer, and a fortunate bounce helped the Mounties to cut the lead in half.
McWeeney fired a shot from the right wing that hit the top of the crossbar and bounced into the 6 for Ross. She bodied it into the goal for her seventh goal of the season.
In the 30th minute, Elizabeth Dupras sent a cross to the left side for eighth-grader Jane Skavlem, who fired a shot high and into the goal to tie it, 2-2.
Mount Greylock generated seven shots on goal against a Monument Mountain (10-4-1) team that is 1-3-1 in its last five outings and adjusting to life without a couple of key contributors in the back.
“We’re missing our goalie, we’re missing our defensive player of the year, it definitely has an impact on the team we were at the beginning of the season,” Monument Mountain coach Jess Platt said. “I think right now we’re just looking toward building our new team, our younger team, and looking to improve our looks and improve our shape. We’re thinking about November and using every day to get better.”
Mount Greylock, which gave up the early goal on a corner, got a corner kick goal of its own in the 69th minute.
McWeeny sent the ball into the box from the right wing corner, and Ross headed it home to break the tie.
“She got up for that head ball,” Ostheimer said of speedy junior forward. “Most of the time, you see something like that, and they put it over the bar. So, the fact that she grazed the bar and got it underneath was huge.
“[Ross] has been an all-purpose weapon for us, including on corners. We’ve started to get a few corners.”
Both the Mounties and Spartans are heading to the Western Mass tournament.
Mount Greylock has the lone remaining date against Hoosac Valley. Monument Mountain has two regular season games remaining, starting with Saturday morning’s home game against Pittsfield.