WESTHAMPTON — Put the ball in Brie Salomao’s vicinity in the penalty area. The Hampshire Regional senior will find something productive to do with it, even if she should have no business reaching it.
Fellow Raiders girls soccer senior Kayla Lukasiewicz has developed a connection with Salomao over their time on varsity together. They know when the other is making the run and when to send the ball in.
Against Southwick on Wednesday in the 53rd minute, Lukasiewicz noticed Salomao making a run down the right side of the field and knew she’d beat the defender to the ball. So she launched it forward. The ball bounced in the box in front of Southwick keeper Ellie Westcott. Salomao arrived at roughly the same time and leapt into the air. She outjumped Westcott to head the ball over the Southwick keeper into the net, providing an exclamation point on a 4-0 win to end the regular season.
“I usually don’t plan on the goalie getting it. I always try to be first to it no matter what,” Salomao said. “I was like ‘I’m getting this, I’m putting it in the back of the net.’”
The stunning finish came off as near routine to her teammates.
“I had confidence she was going to get it,” Lukasiewicz said. “I was shocked, but I wasn’t that shocked because she’s always there for those.”
The Raiders (6-5-4) scored their other three goals from corner kicks. They stepped ahead in the 22nd minute. Southwick cleared Larissa Riley’s initial corner, but she fought to the ball first and found Ella Forest at the top of the box. Forest cut a diagonal pass to Parker Pallante at the six-yard box, and she tucked home a first-time finish.
Lukasiewicz made it 2-0 two minutes later directly from a Maisie Bowler corner.
Goal: hampshire’s Parker pallante finished a ping pong passing sequence in the box after a corner. Assist to Ella forest. 1-0 @GoHRRaiders in the 22nd minute pic.twitter.com/LdhOfh0HFD
— Kyle Grabowski👑 (@kylegrbwsk) October 20, 2021
“We work on corners a lot. Maise hit my feet right at the top of the six, and I could finish it in,” Lukasiewicz said.
Riley picked up an assist from a corner in the 42nd minute when she put the pass right on Penelope Villada’s feet, who tapped it home for a 3-0 lead.
“It was a perfect ball,” Salomao said.
The Raiders midfield and defense made sure their keepers didn’t have much to do. Delaney Cantwell saved two shots, and Makenna Rogalski turned away one.
“We work on a lot of getting back on defense,” Hampshire coach Steven Croft said. “They put it together, definitely in the second half. They’re playing well.”
Hampshire hasn’t lost since Oct. 1, going 6-0-2 over their last eight games. The Raiders are in position to host a quarterfinal matchup in the upcoming Western Mass Class B tournament next week after finishing the regular season on a high. It’s their fourth clean sheet in the past eight games and fourth time scoring at least four goals.
“It’s going to turn out great for us if we keep on scoring like this and having this mentality on the field,” Lukasiewicz said. “It’s a great state of mind that we all have right now.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.