WILBRAHAM — After spending much of the second half pinned in its end of the field while trailing by a goal, the Northampton girls soccer team made a final push to keep its season alive.
Minnechaug’s defense had twice bailed out goalie Tamra Zippin earlier, but with less than 30 seconds left the junior goalie put the Western Massachusetts Tournament Division 1 quarterfinal game away for the Falcons.
Hamp senior Olivia Pruett, who’d been a key player for the Blue Devils all season, got the ball about 15 yards out, just right of center and fired, Zippin got her hands on it and smothered it to seal Minnechaug’s 1-0 win at Falcon Field.
“The thing I love about my team is that they continued to play with heart and kept going and going,” Hamp coach Vanessa Patry said. “That’s what I asked of them. … Sometimes the ball just doesn’t roll your way.”
Sixth-seeded Hamp completed its season at 8-6-5. The No. 3 Falcons (11-5-3) advanced to face No. 2 Ludlow (13-4-2), Wednesday in the semifinals at Central at 5 p.m.
“I’m really proud of our team,” said Northampton junior Emma Tanner. “We got down on the scoreboard but didn’t get down on ourselves. We played strong and kept working hard for the whole 80 minutes.”
The game’s only goal came 2:14 into the game. After Hamp couldn’t convert a corner kick, Minnechaug counterattacked. Caleigh O’Brien’s pass put Alyssa Boilard behind the Hamp defense.
Junior goalie Sydney White came out to cut down the angle, but Boilard booted it by her into the far-left corner of the net to make it 1-0.
“The first three minutes decided that game,” Patry said. “It’s hard to walk away from. It is what it is today.”
Minnechaug threatened to blow the game open shortly after, but Ryann Kuhn’s rising shot hit the crossbar.
Hamp got two looks — one in each half — with Zippin out of the net, but on both, a defender recovered to make a critical save.
“Minnechaug is always solid,” Patry said. “They backed up their keeper really well.”
It was the final game for Hamp seniors Lauren Parks, Sienna Paulson and Pruett. Patry hoped the returning Blue Devils would grow from their postseason experience.
“This is experience for the future,” Patry said. “Some of the freshmen don’t understand what this team meant. Hopefully in the future we can build off of this and use the experience as the young players become veterans.”
Tanner thought the game would serve as motivation for the returning players.
“Now these girls know how losing feels,” she said. “Next year they’ll come back even stronger and not want to feel this way again.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.