Wells' Hat Trick Lifts Mount Greylock Girls
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- In this age of sport specialization, the three-sport high school star is getting more and more rare.
Jacqueline Wells Friday staked her claim to being a four-sport star.
The Mount Greylock senior made the most of her varsity soccer debut, scoring three goals in a 4-0 win over Hoosac Valley on Berkshire Community College's Gene Dellea Field.
Wells was coming off a fall when she helped the Mounties to an undefeated season in cross country and a winter in which she dominated the county's Nordic ski league. The last time she competed in track and field, she ran on Mount Greylock's Western Mass champion 4-by-400 relay quartet as a sophomore in 2019.
And thanks to the MIAA's decision to wedge a "Fall 2" season in between winter and spring this year, Wells got to give soccer a try ... another try.
"I played in youth leagues and switched to running when I got to seventh grade," she said. "Just coming back, senior year. A couple of my friends were like, 'Why not?'
"I loved joining the soccer team. They're all amazing girls. They've taught me so much already. It's just amazing to be playing out there with them."
Mount Greylock got all the offense it needed in the 15th minute, when Elizabeth Dupras, another member of that sectional title-winning 4-by-400 quartet, made a run down the right wing and scored the Mounties' first goal of the year.
"We've got some speed," Mount Greylock coach Tom Ostheimer said. "We've got Jackie Wells, who had the hat trick, and Elizabeth Dupras, another cross country runner. We've got some speed that we haven't had since the Madison Ross days.
"That was fun to watch. We got some breakaways up front, which was great."
Wells scored her first varsity goal with an assist from Lucy Igoe in the 35th minute of the game, and it stayed a 2-0 Mount Greylock lead at half-time.
Hoosac Valley came out strong to start the second half and registered a couple of good scoring chances. First, Sydni Jamros got the Hurricanes' first shot on goal from the top of the 18. Then, two minutes later, Mount Greylock keeper Delaney Babcock was forced to come out to stop a breakaway chance up the middle.
Less than a minute later, Wells converted on a run up the middle at the other end to extend the margin to 3-0.
She finished her natural hat trick in the 71st minute.
Emily Godfrey made nine saves for Hoosac Valley. Babcock had two stops to backstop the Mounties.
"I thought they played really well together, worked it out in the back," Ostheimer said.
"We had 10 club games in the fall, plus we practiced with the school. It does feel like a second season."