GREENFIELD — It was relentless pressure from the opening whistle for the Smith Academy boys soccer team on Wednesday.
Host Greenfield struggled to gain possession early, though the Falcons weren’t putting many shots on goal.
Once Smith Academy got aggressive it capitalized on its chances however, scoring three times in the first half to pave the way to a 4-1 victory.
“It was a nice bounce-back game,” Smith Academy coach Jason Duncan said. “We had a hard game Monday against Frontier [a 2-1 loss]. Greenfield always plays us tough up here. It’s a smaller field than ours so we had to adjust to the spacing. We got sucked into playing in tight spaces but we played through it today. It feels like we get in a funk up here but we avoided that today. Greenfield played hard and they made us work.”
Four different Falcons found the back of the net, with Wyatt Jeffress, Ryan Gage and Logan Graves scoring in the first half. Ryan Herlihy added an insurance goal in the second half.
“Smith is very talented,” Greenfield coach Andy Rup said. “They’ve been playing together for a long time now. Jason does a fantastic job. His kids are disciplined and they played well.”
The first 10 minutes of the game were spent almost exclusively in the Green Wave, though the Falcons weren’t able to force Greenfield keeper Alex Carballo into action.
That changed in the 12th minute, as Gage made a great kick-in to Herlihy, who then crossed it to Jeffress for an open goal to give Smith Academy the early lead.
Once the Falcons saw one go through, the pressure intensified. Herlihy just missed a shot from the top of the box in the 15th minute and Roger Grondin’s shot in the 23rd minute went just wide.
“We were being too picky,” Duncan said. “We had some good possession there in the first 10-15 minutes but no shots. We were crossing the ball back and forth, which is what we want to do, but we have to shoot if we want to score. If you’re a defender and nobody is shooting, you’re doing your job. In spite of the possession we were a little flat from the start.”
The near-misses nearly cost Smith, as Greenfield’s Dante Ruggiano raced up field, made a swift cutback move and dished it to Henry Zaccara at the top of the box. The junior then took a dribble to his right and fired it into the goal to tie the game 1-1 in the 24th minute.
The Falcons tallied two goals in the final eight minutes of the first half to change the complexion of the game.
Riley Intrator set up the first strike, dribbling into the box and passing to an open Gage who buried the shot to put Smith ahead 2-1 in the 32nd minute.
Two minutes later Graves blasted a shot in to give the Falcons a 3-1 lead going into the half.
“We had a tough time in the middle,” Rup said. “Not having a ton of subs is a killer. We were competitive throughout though. We played hard and we didn’t give up.”
Both teams struggled to generate good scoring chances in the second half as both defenses stood strong.
With six minutes to play Intrator set up Herlihy for a goal, drawing the defense before making the dish for the easy score.
Carballo stood tall in goal for the Green Wave, coming up with a plethora of saves to prevent the Falcon lead from ballooning.
It’s been a busy week to close out the season for Smith Academy, playing four games in five days.
The Falcons close out the stretch with Athol on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Hatfield before going on the road to take on Pioneer Friday.
“We’re just grinding through,” Duncan said, “but when I was playing, I’d much rather be playing games than practicing.”