Young Lenox Girls Reach Regional Semis

LENOX, Mass. – The Lenox girls soccer team continued its second-half surge with a pair of first-half goals to beat Hoosac Valley, 2-0, in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Class D tournament on Thursday night.

 

Lauren Bridges and Aliza Munch each scored a goal for the Millionaires (7-7-2), who are 6-2-1 in their last nine games.

 

This month, they have avenged two of their September losses as a very young Lenox squad continues to improve.

 

“They’re all well above where I thought they’d be, quite honestly,” Millionaires coach Brian Seminara said. “I think we played 10 different eighth-graders tonight, and at least a few of them played significant minutes. And they’re all battling against varsity teams. They’re playing some serious minutes, and they’re good.”

 

A relatively grizzled veteran, ninth-grader Bridges, started the scoring in a back-and-forth first half when she converted on a corner kick in the 15th minute.

 

Bridges started the play in the right wing corner. A Hoosac Valley defender made a play on the ball in the 18, but it came back to the wing for Bridges, who hit a left-footed shot off the far post and into the goal to give Lenox a 1-0 lead.

 

The Hurricanes had a good chance to level the score on a corner in the 44th minute, when Tia Kareh’s entry from the right wing found the head of Gabby Billetz. But Billetz’ header went high.

 

Lenox was able to double its lead moments later.

 

Munch won a 50-50 ball at the top of the 18 and knocked it down the left side. She then beat a Hoosac Valley defender one-on-one before slipping a shot past Hoosac Valley keeper Emma Meczywor (10 saves).

 

“I took it baseline,” Munch said. “I was looking to send it top 18, but I had a defender on me, so I couldn’t quite do that. So I just took a little tap to the side around her, and the goalie came out. And I kind of slid and tipped it in. It just went past the goalie.”

 

Meczwyor did not let anything else by her the rest of the way, stopping all seven shots that she saw in the second half.

 

In the 47th minute, she made a diving save on an Aida Nichols shot from the left wing. Eight minutes later, she came off her line to shut down Reeva Patel on the right wing. And in the final two minutes, she went to the top of the 18 to meet Munch on a run up the middle and was able to deflect the ball out and over the goal line for a Lenox corner.

 

Hoosac Valley (5-10-2) continued a rough second half to its season after a 4-3 start. But the Hurricanes looked better Thursday than they did just more than a week ago in a 4-1 loss to the same Millionaires.

 

“Yeah, and I think we had some good opportunities,” Hoosac Valley coach Mike Ziaja said. “We really kind of emphasize patience, and I have to be patient, too. We’re not quite there yet in terms of feeling confident to hold the ball, to build up play and not get into these running matches.

 

“We can run for a while, but we’re playing with a short bench, and we just have a hard time maintaining pace for the 80 minutes that that up-and-down game really requires.”

 

Lenox moves on to the regional semi-finals on Saturday at Mount Greylock, a 2-0 winner when the teams met on Oct. 21.

 

“We were a little banged up the last time we played Greylock,” Seminara said. “We had just got done playing five-ish games in, maybe, eight days, and they played, maybe, one. So we’re definitely looking forward to seeing if we can show a little better against them.”