Raifstanger, Firth Record Hat Tricks as Spartans Top Lenox
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – Monument Mountain’s Iris Firth came into Thursday’s game against Lenox with 20 goals in nine games this fall.
Understandably, she drew some attention from the Millionaires’ defense.
Fortunately for the Spartans, she had options.
“It’s always good to have lots of people we can play to,” Firth said after collecting three goals and two assists in a 7-2 win. “Our team has definitely expanded in that we have a lot of strong players who have been improving more and more.”
Firth set up Mercedes Raifstanger in the 11th minute of play and fed Annette Boyko for a goal five minutes later.
Raifstanger went on to have a hat trick of her own on a day that was capped by her teammates singing “Happy Birthday” to her before they packed up their gear.
“With Iris [Firth] and I, we just look at each other, and we know whether to run or check to, and we give each other the through balls that we need,” Raifstanger said.
The birthday girl completed her hat trick in the 35th minute on a beautiful through ball from the back from Lily Haskins-Vaughan.
Firth then scored her first of the game to make it 5-0 at half-time.
Once it was established that the Spartans could – and would – get goals from across their front line, Firth completed her natural hat trick with a pair of goals in the second half to open up a 7-0 lead.
Spartan coach Miguel Silva said the team has been working on ways to make its offense more dangerous.
“Something we’ve been working on is having Iris come and become part of the play in terms of joining the midfield, and that way we can open up a lot of space,” Silva said. “And, as you saw today, the more that she comes in and jumps into the midfield, tons of space opens up not only for Sadie [Raifstanger] but for Annette Boyko, who also scored a goal.
“It’s basically like everything opens up. So we’ve been doing that in practice, and teaching our other forwards not to just vertically run but to make runs diagonally and find the space that Iris is leaving open. I think they’re starting to get the concept.”
Lenox, which put a couple of shots on Monument keeper Alex Tenney and applied strong pressure in the first 10 minutes of play, avoided the shutout in the closing moments when Lauren Bridges fired a shot from about 45 yards that curled under the crossbar.
The Millionaires saw their record slip to 3-3-1 with the three losses coming against undefeated Mount Greylock and 9-1 Monument Mountain (Sept. 11 and Thursday).
Lenox coach Brian Seminara said he is happy with the effort he is getting from his young team, even though he is concerned about some injuries.
“We’re playing great soccer,” he said. “Even when we played Mount Greylock, we were 0-0 for the first 35 minutes. When we were playing Monument today, for the first 10 minutes, we were controlling. We had three or four shots on goal to their none. And then the fatigue sets in.
“I definitely did not expect going into half for this game to be, essentially, without my starting keeper, without my starting two center defenders, without my starting forward. And the list kind of goes on. It’s unfortunate, but the younger girls – the younger, younger girls in middle school – stepped up well that we had on the bench.
“At this point, I think we’re playing good soccer. We’re just trying get healthy and keep on rolling.”
On the other bench, Silva saw even better soccer from his Spartans than he saw two days earlier, when Monument Mountain also scored seven goals but also allowed four scores in a win over Drury.
“We had a gaping hole in the middle, so our defense was a little off,” Silva said. “So we pulled one of our defensive midfielders back, Lily [Haskins-Vaughan], who had an incredible game today. Basically, nothing got by her. So that move alone created a situation where our defense wasn’t being left under-personed.”
With the win on Thursday, the Spartans guaranteed themselves a .500 record and a spot in the state tournament. On Monday, they will work on improving their seed when they travel to Springfield Central, a team Monument Mountain beat, 8-3, in Great Barrington a couple of weeks ago.
Lenox will play the Golden Eagles first on Saturday morning.