SPRINGFIELD — The ninth-seeded Frontier Regional boys soccer team defeated No. 1 Pope Francis, 2-1, in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Tournament quarterfinals, Monday afternoon.

“That Pope Francis team is incredibly talented,” first-year Frontier coach Evan Horton said. “They’re young and they’re going to be good for a while. I’m sure they had their sights set on going all the way, so for us to come out and play the way we did today and to play such a complete game which I told the guys. I couldn’t be more thrilled. I came into this game thinking we could compete. It’s definitely great to pull that off against a team like that.”

Frontier (10-7-2) will play No. 4 Easthampton (17-2-1), Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Chicopee Comp in the semifinals.

Frontier started strong, finding the net at the 25-minute mark. Connor Bagdon scored following a series of deflections and missed shots in front of goalkeeper Tanner Koziol.

Less than five minutes later, Pope Francis responded with a goal of its own to tie the game at halftime.

Horton kept his halftime message to his team simple.

“My message was just keep doing what we’re doing. If you’re continuing to play the way you played in that first half, there’s going to be chances for us to win this game,” Horton said. “I said something’s either going to fall in place for us to get a goal or something’s going to fall in place for them.”

The Red Hawks broke the tie with plenty of time left in the second half. Tom Kurkulonis scored off a Noah Jacques feed on the left side of the net nine minutes in for a 2-1 lead.

Pope Francis (13-3-3) applied pressure late, but Frontier held off the Cardinals to pull off the upset in the quarterfinals. It was a rematch from the regular season when the Cardinals beat the Red Hawks, 6-1, on Oct. 10.

Horton knows his team has some work to do to advance to the championship round.

“I think for us it’s continuing to play with conviction and to keep pressure,” Horton said. “I think we come out really strong at the start of games and then we tend to have a little bit of a letdown, especially if we don’t get a goal early on.”

Frontier goalie Peter Bronke and Koziol each had three saves.