Igoe Scores in OT to Lift Mounties in Western Mass Semis
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Lucy Igoe was not quite sure who gave her the ball, but she knew exactly where to put it.
Igoe launched a left-footed shot from the edge of the 18 into the far corner of the goal Wednesday to give the Mount Greylock girls soccer team a 2-1, overtime win* over Drury in the Class C Western Massachusetts semi-finals.
Drury coach Maria Bartini later said it was a clear out of the box in the first minute of OT that led to the winning goal. The score went in the books as unassisted.
“It was a really nice ball from Liv [Morales],” Igoe said. “I think … don’t quote me on that.”
However the ball got to Igoe, her goal sent the second-seeded Mounties into Saturday’s regional title game against top-seeded Palmer, which cruised Wednesday with a 3-0 win over Frontier.
“We were just saying, we have to score in the first minute like we did last game in the second half against Westfield Tech, we scored in like 30 seconds,” Igoe said. “We knew, it’s golden goal, you have to score to win.
“I wasn’t sure [it was going in] because the goalie made a good jump, but I saw it, and I was excited.”
In addition to putting the Mounties in the regional final, it gave them a measure of revenge against the Blue Devils, who earned a 2-1 win over Mount Greylock when the teams met in North Adams earlier this month.
The OT game-winner also put a little bit of a damper on a milestone night for Drury senior Elli Miles, who tied the game in the 42nd minute by converting a penalty kick.
A little bit of a damper, but not much, considering the fact that Drury went toe-to-toe with the long-time big dog on the block in North County, and the Blue Devils are assured a spot in the Division 5 tournament that gets underway next week.
“I thought we played really well,” Bartini said. “It was a really tight game, back and forth. It could have gone either way. A ball could have squirted out to one of our girls, and they would have buried it, too. It was a great shot to end the game, right in that upper corner. Not much that you can do about that.
“The season’s not over. … It’s a little different feel than previous years. We live to fight another day.”
Mount Greylock started the scoring on Wednesday in the 27th minute.
Off a Morales corner kick from the right wing, Jane Skavlem headed the ball in the 6 toward the goal, and it was blocked by a Drury defender. But Skavlem cashed in the rebound for her seventh goal of the season.
Later in the half, Skavlem was injured on a collision at midfield and left the game not to return.
Mount Greylock had a good chance to take a two-goal lead in the final minute of the half, but Drury keeper Brooke Bishop (five saves) stopped a try from Morales to keep it a one-goal match.
Coming out of the break, the Blue Devils generated some of their best pressure of the night, and it paid off when the Mounties were whistled for a goal in the 18. Miles took the PK and low and to the left of Mount Greylock’s Mai O’Connor to tie the match.
“That was a big lift,” Bartini said. “I think part of it was it took a load off Elli’s mind because she has that 100th point kind of on her mind. She played into the game in the first half, but definitely after she converted the penalty, I felt like the momentum was swinging, and it would have been great if we had converted some of those opportunities we created. But it didn’t happen.”
O’Connor made five of her eight saves in the second half to keep Drury from hanging a second goal on the scoreboard.
At the other end, Bishop made a game-saving play late in regulation to deny Maire Scanlon from getting a shot after a strong run up the right wing. And Bishop made a save with 10 seconds left on a shot from 30 yards out by the Mounties’ Molly Sullivan to send it to OT.
“This played out kind of like how we thought, after a really hard-fought game on their turf a couple of weeks ago,” Mount Greylock coach Tom Ostheimer said. “We knew it was going to be a physical, hard match against a quality opponent, and they gave us everything we could handle today.
“It took 81 minutes to get it done.”
*NOTE: Mount Greylock scored in the first OT to advance to the Western Mass tournament final. Because that tournament is part of the MIAA’s regular season and the state does not use overtime in the regular season, it counts as a tie for seeding purposes for next week’s state tournament.