The Lenox boys soccer team possessed the ball for much of the Western Massachusetts Division 4 Tournament quarterfinal against Smith Academy.
The Falcons needed to play aggressive, but they couldn’t. The slick playing field wasn’t conducive to an aggressive defense.
Lenox scored a pair of goals in each half en route to a 4-0 win, Wednesday.
“You had to be aware of your footing or you slipped a lot,” Smith Academy coach Jason Duncan said. “When Lenox is controlling we had no choice but to move quickly and pressure. It led to some openings for them.”
Top-seeded Lenox (8-9-2) will play No. 4 Mount Everett (10-4-1) in the semifinals, Thursday at 5 p.m. at Wahconah in Dalton.
Mount Everett beat Hopkins Academy, 1-0.
Duncan said Lenox controlled the ball about 75 percent of the time.
“We tried to counter and we couldn’t get that going,” Duncan said. “We had some glimpses at the end but nothing too serious.”
Smith Academy had one corner kick near the end of the game.
Ryan Belina made 10 saves for the No. 8 Falcons (6-14-0).
It was the final game for seniors Kyle Kirkland, Jack Zigmont and Max Bartlett.
The future is bright for Smith Academy, which fielded a team this year loaded with sophomores, freshman and eighth-graders, including Belina.
The team battled through injuries this season as several players played out of position.
“Guys have been pretty flexible and stepped up,” Duncan said. “They’ve done what every needed to be done to help the team, which is nice.”
Monson 1, Hampshire Regional 0 (2OT) — The Mustangs scored off a corner kick with two minutes left in double-overtime to advance to the Division 3 semifinals with the win at Granite Valley Middle School.
“It was pretty well-executed,” Hampshire coach Steve Croft said.
Third-seeded Monson (13-3-4) will play No. 2 Wahconah (13-3-2), Thursday at 5 p.m. at Holyoke High.
No. 6 Hampshire finished 11-6-1.
“Two good teams going at it,” Croft said. “We had our opportunities and they had theirs. Neither team could capitalized until they did late in the game, the second overtime.”
Hampshire found the back of the net once, but it was called back for offsides.
Juliana Dickinson and Jocelyn Salomao played well on the back line. Katie Taylor made six saves in defeat.
Katelynn Dunn played well up front.
It was the final game for seniors Olivia Aldrich, Sophie Aldrich, Carley Stenson, Emma Kuntz, Abby Goodnow and Sydney Shumway.
Kayla Carleton scored for the South Hadley field hockey team in its 2-1 loss to Greenfield in the Western Massachusetts Division 2 semifinal, Monday.
The goal scorer was misidentified in Tuesday’s Gazette.