CHICOPEE — After a defensive-oriented start, the top-seeded South Hadley girls soccer team broke through against No. 4 Monument Mountain with nine minutes left in the first half of the Western Massachusetts Division 3 semifinals, Wednesday at Chicopee Comp.
Lyndsay Marjanski and Monument goalie Helen Pajeski collided fighting for possession of the ball. Marjanski was awarded a penalty kick and she took advantage, sneaking it past Pajeski to take the lead.
“I really thought we needed to come back because we were kind of lacking energy so we really needed someone to pump us up,” Marjanski said.
Though the Tigers held the lead at halftime, South Hadley coach Rich Marjanski made sure to keep his team focused in the second half.
“We didn’t really play our best the first 40 minutes and I said, ‘Listen, there’s no tomorrow,’ Rich Marjanski said. “‘That second goal is going to probably decide who wins this game. So if you guys get that second goal it puts a lot of pressure on them to move up.’ They responded well. They kept the play in their end.”
South Hadley added a pair to beat Monument, 3-0, and advance to the finals.
The defending champion Tigers (21-0-0) will face the winner of Thursday’s 5 p.m. semifinal between No. 2 Wahconah (13-3-2) and No. 3 Monson (13-3-4) at Holyoke High.
South Hadley came out firing in the second half, applying pressure early. Paige Marjanski started the sequence for the Tigers, dishing it to Teagan Gawron in front of the net. Gawron made the extra pass to a trailing Alexa Blaney, who extended South Hadley’s lead to 2-0.
The Tigers weren’t done.
After regaining possession, Olivia Blaney lofted a shot over the outstretched arms of Pajeski. The goal gave the Tigers a commanding 3-0 lead with just over four minutes to play.
Reaching the finals “was one of our goals to start the year. The girls really stepped up, especially defensively,” Rich Marjanski said. “This is our eighth shutout in a row. And offensively, it took us a while to click, but the girls from day one, they wanted to get back to that feeling of winning Western Mass. and I know it’s a long road to get there and it’s a tough one.”
Paige Marjanski was proud of what her team has accomplished so far.
“I really liked how after when we weren’t scoring for a while and the other team was kinda beating us to every ball and we all came back together and decided we needed to step it up, and we did step it up so it was kind of cool to just do that,” Paige Marjanski said. “That was our goal as a team. We wanted to get there again so that came true.”
South Hadley has plenty of experience with most of the team returning from last season.
“This is a special team, they do a lot of team bonding outside soccer. There’s 17 kids coming back having that feeling of winning and they want to feel it again,” Rich Marjanski said. “Experience kind of overcame the second half. Even the girls at halftime talking they don’t want this to be their last game.”
With the championship approaching, South Hadley still has plenty to work on to defend their title.
“We’re just gonna do our thing. These guys have been playing great all year. Offensively, we try to get 20 shots a game at least and hoping like three of those go in,” Rich Marjanski said. “Our percentages are pretty good lately. So we’re just keep applying pressure to the defenses.”
Bridget Sears stopped six shots for South Hadley, while Pajeski finished with 15 saves for Monument (14-5-1).