GRANBY — The Granby girls soccer team knows that it plays its best on offense when they get the ball wide and send crosses into the penalty box.
At times on Thursday, the team didn’t do that. But when it did, the offense opened up.
The top-seeded Rams defeated No. 8 St. Mary’s, 6-0, in the Western Massachusetts Division 4 quarterfinals at Granby High School.
Granby (13-4-2) will play No. 4 Ware (10-9) at a time and place to be determined. Ware beat No. 5 Lee, 6-0, in its quarterfinal on Thursday.
Kaleigh Croteau scored four goals to lead the Rams. Nora Young and Sienna Hill each scored once. Sophia Gagnon, Briana Sosa, Ariana Kleketka, Ella Laliberte and Julia Frappier each had an assist. Justice Delaney earned the win in goal, making a save on one shot faced.
“We try to get the ball wide and open up the defense,” Rams coach Bob Weaver said. “Get the ball wide, serve it in and then go from there.”
The game was played in rainy and cold conditions. Due to the weather, long passes were difficult to control and passes into tight spaces were hard to corral.
“I think our execution was off a little today,” Weaver said. “We weren’t fishing our passes from 25 to 30 yards in. We struggled getting those last two passes down. Defensively I thought we were fine.”
Young opened the scoring in the first minute of play. After receiving a pass from Sosa at the top of the box, she turned around and hit a curling left-footed shot inside the right post.
Twenty-five minutes later, Frappier tapped a pass over to Croteau on the left side of the penalty box. Croteau hit the ball as it rolled to her, tucking it into the bottom-left corner.
There were moments in the first half when Granby tried to overpower St. Mary’s with its talent and create offense with moves through the middle of the field, but the Saints’ defenders collapsed in the middle and forced poor passes or turnovers.
“They collapsed a lot of girls into the middle,” Weaver said. “It was tough to get going there.”
A minute after Croteau’s first goal, she scored again, this time unassisted to make it 3-0.
“It’s senior year,” Croteau said. “You don’t want it to be your last game.”
Croteau opened the scoring eight minutes into the second half when she received a pass from Laliberte outside the box on the left side. She sent a high kick over the keeper’s outstretched hand and into the top-right corner of the net.
Croteau scored her fourth and final goal from roughly the same spot and with the same kind of shot with 11 minutes to go in the game.
“We have quite a few girls that can score goals,” Weaver said. “One day it can be Kaleigh. One day it can be Nora. One day it’s Julia. It can be anybody. A lot of different girls are scoring for us.”
St. Mary’s got its best look on goal in the final 10 minutes with a counterattack. The Saints brought the ball into the Rams’ penalty box, but a shot on goal was repelled by Delaney and Granby regained possession.
The Rams outshot St. Mary’s 26-1.
The four-time reigning sectional champions (twice in Division 4) are looking forward to the semifinals.
“We are excited,” Croteau said. “This is a big year for eight of us seniors. We are looking forward to it.”