LUDLOW — The South Hadley girls soccer team subbed out its entire starting roster with a three-goal lead and only 12 minutes remaining in the Pioneer Valley Summer Soccer League B Division final on Saturday afternoon at Ludlow’s Lusitano Stadium.
Less than one minute later, Agawam’s Mackenzie Shean outran her defender on the right side of the field and scored on a shot to the lower-left corner of the goal. Shean recreated the exact same play two minutes later and brought Agawam within one goal of tying the game.
South Hadley quickly returned all of its starters to the game and put Agawam away with three goals in six minutes. The top-seeded Tigers held No. 3 Agawam scoreless for the last two minutes and claimed the PVSSL championship title, 6-2.
Lindsay Marjanski got momentum going early for South Hadley after she dribbled up the right and crossed the ball to Teagan Gawron, who beat the goalkeeper to the right and scored on a wide-open net in the 21st minute.
Five minutes later, Reese Carey scored off an assist from Alexa Blaney. Marjanski made it 3-0 at the 30-minute mark with a goal following a breakaway up the center.
Marjanski was named MVP following the conclusion of the game.
“You just have to go hard no matter what, because you never know at summer soccer,” Marjanski said. “Some people are on vacation. You don’t know if they were missing players last time we played them.”
Paige Marjanski scored South Hadley’s first goal of the second half. Carey scored twice more afterwards to earn a hat trick.
“All of our starters except for one were on varsity last year,” South Hadley coach Samantha Gawron said. South Hadley “had a lot of seniors last year, so it’s gonna be kind of a new team, a young team. There’s a lot of freshmen coming in.”
No. 2 Hadley took on No. 4 Chicopee in the boys B Division final.
Nine minutes into the game, Ben Andersen took a corner kick for Hadley from the right. Chicopee’s goalkeeper jumped up and tipped the ball near the crossbar, redirecting it off the far left post and into the back of the net. Andersen was credited with the unassisted goal.
“I was shooting to score. I scored in the corner last time, so I thought why not go for it,” Andersen said. “And when the goalie bobbled it, I was pretty pumped. I was pretty happy.”
The goal held as the Hawks took home the championship.
Chicopee had numerous counterattack opportunities throughout the game, but an impressive defensive effort from Hadley’s Mike Curran kept the Pacers from converting.
Andersen has already shifted his focus toward the fall season.
“We’ve got to focus on scoring more goals,” he said. “We didn’t get that many last year. We’ve got to focus on both ends of the field, and just capitalizing on our opportunities.”