HATFIELD — If you thought the Smith Academy boys soccer team would take it easy after winning the Western Mass. Class D tournament on Sunday, you thought wrong.
The Falcons, which entered the MIAA Division 5 state tournament as the No. 22 seed and hosted No. 43 Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School on Thursday, put to rest any idea of a Dragons upset within the first couple minutes of action.
Smith Academy scored three goals in the opening 10 minutes and kept its foot on the gas the rest of the way to cruise to a 6-0 win in the preliminary round.
“We came out and did what we wanted to do,” Falcons coach Jason Duncan said. “We got the win. Playing guys like Hopkins, Springfield Charter and Granby three times each between the season and tournament gave us a pretty solid schedule and prepared us for the postseason. It’s a good group of guys who like playing together and get along well. We did what we needed to do.”
The Falcons (13-5-2) move on to face No. 11 Keefe Tech on the road in the Round of 32 on Saturday at noon.
Before the fans could settle in, Riley Intrator had Smith Academy on the scoreboard. Cameron Graves sent a cross into the box that Intrator slammed home to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead just one minute into the game.
“Stuff happens and you play the games for a reason,” Duncan said. “It’s not just about your seed. Playing with a lead is the way to go. Getting the early goal so we know we can do it is a nice thing. We took care of that today.”
Four minutes later, Roger Grondin broke through and put a shot on goal that was saved by PVCICS (9-8-2) keeper Abram Speek, but sophomore Ben Hudzik was there to clean up the shot and blast the rebound home to make it a 2-0 game.
In the ninth minute, Intrator smashed a shot that was saved by Speek but once again Hudzik was in the box and alert. He got the rebound on his foot and tapped it home to give the Falcons a commanding 3-0 lead.
“We know we have to clean up goals,” Hudzik said. “We have to crash the net. Coach always preaches that and that’s how we need to execute.”
Smith Academy took a 3-0 lead into the half, though it would have been more if Speek — who finished with 10 saves — wasn’t on his game.
A blistering start to the second half expanded the Falcons’ lead. Intrator scored his second of the game after being set up by a beautiful through ball from Logan Graves to go ahead 4-0 in the 45th minute. Four minutes later, Intrator returned the favor by converting a 2-on-1 with Graves, who finished to make it 5-0.
Graves closed out the scoring on a penalty kick in the 68th minute.
Despite where they were in the seeding, Smith Academy made sure not to treat the Dragons lightly.
“We knew they were low on the chart but we had to execute,” Hudzik said. “We couldn’t go into it expecting a blowout. We had to treat it like it was a top team and take it like a normal game. You can’t take it easy or you’ll get blown out.”
Now playing an opponent like Keefe Tech from Eastern Mass., the Falcons said they’re mainly focused on what they can do against an opponent they don’t know much about.
“It looks like they’ve scored a bunch of goals,” Duncan said. “There’s also some leagues around here where teams score a bunch of goals and it doesn’t translate into postseason play so who knows. They could be awesome and be a juggernaut. We just don’t know. We don’t cross over with any of their teams. We’ll do some digging but it’s a mystery. It’s kind of the fun part. Some of those teams we played three times, I don’t want to see them again until next season.”