South Hadley Ends Hoosac's Season in Sectional Tourney

CHESHIRE, Mass. -- With a 12-6 regular season record and the No. 6 seed in the sectional tournament, the Hoosac Valley boys lacrosse team accomplished a lot this spring.

 

But when the Hurricanes' season came to an end on Tuesday, coach Mark Harrington's first thoughts were to the team's potential.

 

"It was a good year," he said after an 18-4 loss to South Hadley. "We had a lot of young kids -- a lot of freshmen playing, we had an eighth-grader. An eighth-grader was our top sub."

 

Nicholas Gaston scored six goals, and Sean McEwen added four as the 11th-seeded Tigers (10-9) advanced to the quarter-finals and a date with St. Bernard's.

 

South Hadley pulled away with a 5-0 second quarter that opened an 11-3 half-time lead.

 

But in the first quarter, Hoosac Valley kept things close.

 

After spotting the visitors a two-goal lead in the first two minutes, Justin Meczywor scored with an assist from Lukie Waterman on a man-up opportunity.

 

Moments later, at the 4 minute, 28 second mark of the first quarter, Waterman scored with an assist from Josh Paree on the man up to tie it, 2-2.

 

The Tigers answered with two straight, but Carson Meczywor's goal with 4:34 left in the quarter made it a one-goal game at 4-3.

 

South Hadley took over from there, scoring the next nine goals before Paree broke that run with a transition goal early in the third quarter.

 

The Tigers got the game to running time in the first minute of the fourth quarter and added two  more goals after that to punctuate the win.

 

Brady Larkin made 11 saves for the Hurricanes, who were outshot by a margin of 29-13.

 

"It's just a tough game," Harrington said. "They played us hard, and they deserved to win."