WHATELY — It felt like a tournament game when the No. 2 and 4-ranked boys soccer teams in the most recent MIAA Division 4 Power Rankings got together at Herlihy Park on Monday.
South Hadley and Frontier faced off for the second time this season, with both squads vying to raise their seeding in the state rankings as well as take control of the Moriarty League race.
The first game between the teams in September ended in a 2-2 tie, but the Tigers made sure that wouldn’t be the case the second time around. South Hadley tallied in the first half and added an insurance goal in the final five minutes of action to come away with a 2-0 victory over the Redhawks.
With the win the Tigers (10-1-1, 8-1-1) are now in the driver’s seat to capture the Moriarty title, needing to win their final two league games against Wahconah and Easthampton to do so.
“If we lost today Frontier was going to win the league,” South Hadley coach Eric Castonguay said. “This was for us to go back into a tie with them. We now control everything. If we win out, we’re going to win the league so we came in with that motivation. It’s two teams that are going to be in the playoffs either way so this is the atmosphere we were expecting. We were prepared for this.
“Seeing the power rankings No. 2 vs. No. 4, guys showed up,” Castonguay added. “This is a game we really wanted and the guys showed up. I have to give it to them. They understand they can’t score six goals every game. Sometimes you have to tough it out and leave it all out on the field. I can’t be any more proud of them. They answered the call.”
It was the first Moriarty League defeat the Redhawks (5-2-3, 5-1-2) have suffered since 2020. Frontier coach Evan Horton said he hopes his team can look internally to see what it can clean up, and use the loss as motivation heading into the final stretch of the season.
“The hope is that it humbles us,” Horton said. “You’re going to lose. What do we learn from the loss? Do we dissect ourselves? Do we look inward or outwardly? I think we need to look at ourselves and realize there’s things we can control that we could have done better but didn’t. It’ll be about how we fix that moving forward.”
It was a slow start for both teams, as each seemed to be feeling the other out in the early portion of the game and were not willing to take many chances and risk an easy goal going the other way.
That changed in the 29th minute. South Hadley’s Colin Quinn blasted a shot into the box that took a deflection off a Frontier defender and ended up on the foot of Matthew Gillis.
The freshman rocketed a shot that made it to the back of the goal, giving South Hadley a 1-0 cushion.
“Getting that goal from a freshman is huge,” Castonguay said. “That was a big moment for him. He’s been trying and it finally worked out for him. Super excited for him and it got us going. We’ll take that any time from him.”
Frontier had a few chances to tie the game in the second half. Nico Fasulo just missed a shot near goal while Brady Burch sailed a free kick just inches over the top crossbar.
With the Redhawks pressing up late in the game, South Hadley got the ball to the edge of the Frontier box. Redhawk keeper Owen Babb went to clear the ball but it went right to Charlie Anischik. The South Hadley senior blooped the shot over Babb and into the open net, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the closing minutes.
“Both teams were trying to figure each other out,” Castonguay said. “It’s like a boxing match. We took a few, they took a few. That second goal was a nice touch play. Late in the game it was the last thing we needed. Luckily Charlie got it.”
Frontier was also unable to take advantage when South Hadley goalie Eddie Wykowski was forced to exit the game for the final 20 minutes of the first half with an injury. Horton felt the South Hadley defense was the more physical group, which was the difference in the game.
Babb and Wykowski each recorded 10 saves.
“I thought technically we may have been better at times but these games are more about physicality and grit and they won the battle of that in both halves,” Horton said. “I thought we had the better of them in the first 20 minutes or so but their goalkeeper goes out and we didn’t get a decent shot off when he was out. We should have been peppering him but they did a good job to keep us away from goal. When he came back in the second half he made a few big saves and that was the difference. He’s a great keeper.”