SPRINGFIELD — Saturday’s Western Massachusetts Division 3 Girls Soccer Tournament championship showcased two programs in different places on their current arcs.
The game featured South Hadley, the two-time reigning sectional champion, and Mahar, a team with zero starting seniors and a program making its first-ever sectional finals appearance.
Four goal scorers, the team’s collective postseason experience and remarkable agility led the Tigers to victory and a third-straight Western Mass. championship, 7-2, against the Senators at Springfield Central.
“You can’t really shut any one part down,” South Hadley coach Rich Marjanski said. “We have a lot of kids in the middle that can score and a lot of kids on the outside that can score. It’s fun coaching, but it’s probably hard coaching against.”
Teagan Gawron (two goals), Maddie Doolittle (two), Lindsay Marjanski and Reese Carey (two) scored for South Hadley. Paige Marjanski (two assists), Lindsay Marjanski (two) and Sydney Mercier had assists.
Delaney Parker and Micalyn Mailoux each scored once for the Senators.
South Hadley (20-0-1) advances to the state semifinals and will play Central Mass. champion Holy Name Central Catholic (17-3-0) on Tuesday at Grafton High School at 5 p.m.
Gawron opened the scoring two minutes into the game. Paige Marjanski sent in a hard shot from the right side. Mahar goalkeeper Maddie Lloyd punched the ball away, but it landed in front of Gawron, who poked the loose ball inside the left post.
The Tigers applied pressure to the Senators’ young defense, earning five corner kicks in the first 12 minutes.
With 28:57 to go in the first half, Doolittle sent in a corner from the left side. The in-swinging corner bounced off Lloyd’s hands and into the net for South Hadley’s second goal.
Four minutes later, Gawron received a pass from Lindsay Marjanski close to the left side of the goal. Gawron poked in the ball off a volley with her left foot to increase South Hadley’s lead to 3-0.
“We all knew we needed a quick start,” Gawron said.
The Senators have been led by Parker, their all-time leading scorer, throughout the season. To try and neutralize the dynamic junior striker, the Tigers marked her with two defenders at all times. Anna Evans and Amy Hampson took turns staying close to Parker, even when the ball was on the opposite end of the field.
“We knew coming into the game how we were supposed to mark her,” Hampson said. “She is a fantastic player. She’s very fast and skilled with the ball. We knew if one of us was on top, we could hopefully block off that initial pass to her. Then if it got by one of us, we would have that other person behind and we can just trace back and help. We also had our outside back helping. We had a lot of support out there.”
Mahar had its best chance with 20:45 to go in the opening half. A Senators forward sent a cross in from the left side to Astha Bernard, but the ball was too far forward, just out of Bernard’s reach.
Five minutes later, Doolittle lined up a shot from 30 yards out at the point. The ball flew toward Lloyd, but took an awkward bounced off her hands and into the net. Paige Marjanski had the assist.
The best-looking goal of the game came with 7:23 to go in the half. Lindsay Marjanski made a move to get by a Mahar defender near the top-right corner of the penalty box. Once she moved past the defender, she sent in a curling, left footed shot inside the top-left corner to put the Tigers ahead, 5-0.
“I used to do that move a lot before the season,” Lindsay Marjanski said. “It kind of brought back flashbacks to last year. That is one of my shots.”
The Senators got on the board early in the second half. Grace Rich slid a ball down the middle of the field and sprung Parker loose on a break. Parker scored with a low shot to chip away at South Hadley’s lead.
“It was kind of a wake-up call,” Hampson said. “We needed to keep putting on the pressure.”
Lloyd went down with an injury midway through the second half. Junior Mackinley Drew stepped in to play goalkeeper for the remainder of the game.
Mercier slid a pass in from the point into the box to Carey with 19:52 to go in regulation. Once Carey got control of the ball, she turned around and fired in a low shot to increase the Tigers’ lead to 6-1.
South Hadley scored again three minutes later when Lindsay Marjanski sent a ball into the box along the end line to Carey, who scored with a one-touch shot.
With 9:22 to go in the game, Mailoux sent in a high, looping shot over recently subbed in Tigers backup goalkeeper Rylee Suchenicz to close the gap to 7-2, but South Hadley played solid defense the rest of the way to seal the win.
South Hadley narrowly defeated Monson in the sectional semifinals, 1-0, to earn a spot in the sectional championship.
Admittedly, the team didn’t think it played its best against Monson. The program used that experience to help focus and execute on Saturday.
“Coming from the Monson game where we weren’t controlling the ball as well as we wanted to, we really wanted to put the pressure on and connect passes and be able to finish (against Mahar),” Doolittle said. “That is something we didn’t do in the last game.”
South Hadley advanced to the state championship last season, but fell to Norwell, 2-0.
“There are only four teams playing in all of Division 3 right now. To be one of four is a great thing,” Rich Marjanski said. “We are going to have fun in states and see what happens, represent Western Mass. Hopefully all of Western Mass. is rooting for us.”