SPRINGFIELD – Belchertown took about 10 minutes to find its footing on the turf at Pope Francis.
Then it found the back of Easthampton’s net.
The top-seeded Orioles scored three goals in the first half en route to a 4-0 win over the No. 8 Eagles on Monday in the Western Massachusetts Class B quarterfinals.
Belchertown will host No. 4 Chicopee on a turf field Wednesday. Belchertown’s home field isn’t currently playable. The Pacers beat No. 5 Wahconah in another quarterfinal Monday.
“We don’t have turf, so getting used to how the ball is going to move… that was the number one thing we needed to focus on and settle in,” Orioles coach Kyle Thibault said. “Once we did that and possessed the ball, then it was just building off of that.”
Hallie Floyd laid the foundation in the 10th minute. She fired home a shot with an assist to Mia Corish.
Then Madysen LePage put it on frame three minutes later. Easthampton keeper Abbie Parr knocked down a long shot and kept out a rebound, but the clearance dribbled out to LePage, who bent it over the defense and Parr into the top right corner for a 2-0 lead.
“You never know what’s going to happen on the field. You can never back down,” Belchertown junior Aida Name said. “You can’t expect to win, you’ve just got to play hard, play your game.”
Name’s game against the Eagles involved going forward from her left back position into open space and initiating the Belchertown attack after taking Easthampton defenders off the dribble.
Belchertown (12-0-5) controlled possession in the Eagles half of the field for the entire game. In the 28th minute, Macie Bolton kept the ball in Belchertown’s control from her back after a collision in the box and slid it to Saylor Reed. Reed made it 3-0 with a first-time shot.
“We know that they are more skilled than we are, they are physical and fast and really control the ball well. So we knew that we were in for a defensive struggle,” Easthampton coach Brian Miller said. “Their skill and their talent was superior to ours.”
Belchertown added a fourth goal just 90 seconds into the second half. From a corner – one of nine for the Orioles – Belchertown found Mia Corish at the top of the 18-yard box. She unleashed a shot that deflected off Abigail Rivers into the net.
“I’ve told our team all season, I don’t really care what the other team’s record may or may not be, if we play our A game and we go out and play that for the entire 80 minutes then we can’t be upset at the result of the game,” Thibault said. “And they’ve done that.”
Belchertown made a triumphant return to facing schools its own size in the postseason. The Orioles have opted to play in Division 1 tournaments in recent seasons to compete against teams in its league. Now they’re aligned with schools their own size because of the statewide tournament’s debut next week and subsequent realignment, and the PVIAC grouping schools of similar size for the Western Mass. tournaments.
“It’s different. We can hang with the upper level, obviously, because that’s our league,” Thibault said. “It’s a little bit of a change.”
Another change from historic Western Mass. tournaments is that Easthampton’s season isn’t over. The Eagles will play a consolation game against another quarterfinal loser Wednesday to close out their regular season.
“I don’t forsee us playing anyone better than them in the tournament, and I think our girls will take from this that we still defended strong, we were physical, we didn’t back down,” Miller said. “As long as they’re satisfied with their effort, that’s all we can ask for.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.