Northampton blanks Chicopee Comp to qualify for WMass girls soccer tournament

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton girls soccer team beat Chicopee Comp, 2-0 Thursday, and with the win qualified for the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament.

The Blue Devils took an early lead against the Colts with a goal from Brigitte Goeler-Slough in the third minute. The goal came off of a throw-in and Jillian McGrath found Goeler-Slough in the middle of the field, where she give Northampton a 1-0 lead.

“We’ve been working really hard all year to play simple balls, play to feet, play as a team, find outside to get in,” Northampton coach Vanessa Butynski said. “I felt like they kind of put it all together.”

Northampton (8-7-2, 5-4 Kurty-Fielding) played aggressive and controlled the ball for most of the first half, barely allowing the Colts to mount an attack. Comp was limited in the first half with most of its scoring chances toward the end of the half. The Blue Devils’ defense limited the Colts to only two shots on goal.

Chicopee Comp (6-6-5, 4-2-3) beat Northampton earlier this season in Chicopee, but Northampton held on for the win this time around.

“When we played them the first time, they really packed the ball in and we tried to jam it down the center,” Butynski said. “So we have been focusing a lot of utilizing our wingers to then get through, so that outside-in technique, and it really paid off.”

Goeler-Slough’s early goal was enough for the Blue Devils to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.

Northampton continued to control the second half, and limited Chicopee Comp to three shots.

Blue Devils goalie Sydney Lewandowski played well in net and stopped all five shots that came her way for the shutout.

Chicopee had a late push for a scoring chance, but the Blue Devils made the stop and countered. It resulted in a goal in the 84th minute from Caroline Tanner off of an assist from Brooke Gibson.

“(Brooke Gibson) was in the right place at the right time and she could have shot that from outside,” Butynski said. “But she, like we’ve been saying all year, played the simple ball to (Caroline Tanner) and she put it in the back of the net.”

Northampton has one regular-season game remaining against Agawam.

“This was a huge game,” Butynski said. “We have some injured players so we will be able to give some people some rest, but we’re going into Agawam just to have fun.”