BELCHERTOWN – If it wasn’t clear that No. 2 Belchertown came to play in the Western Mass. Tournament, Mia Corish made sure everybody knew.
Already up 2-0 against No. 7 Easthampton in the Class B quarterfinals on Tuesday, the Orioles got a chance a couple of minutes into the second to build their lead with a corner kick. Madysen LePage jogged over and set up the play, raising her hand before firing a picture-perfect ball into the middle of a scrum in front of the net. Corish jumped up amidst all the chaos and sent a header soaring past Easthampton keeper Addie Barr, her second goal of the game.
“My main goal on corners is to get in the box and get in there and just try to get an outcome off of all these corners we have each game,” Corish said on her corner tally. “I kind of just ran into the box and hoped it went in.”
Between Corish and her teammate Brianna Ribeiro each netting a pair of goals, it was just too much for Easthampton to handle. After 80 minutes, the Belchertown squad had advanced to the semifinals with a 4-0 win. The Orioles know they have a target on their backs after winning the Western Mass. title last season. They’re hoping they can pull off the repeat.
“We killed it last year, so we’re just trying to do the same exact thing, take it all the way to the Western Mass. finals,” Corish said.
The Orioles will face either No. 3 Hampshire or No. 6 Pittsfield in the Class B semifinals; Hampshire and Pittsfield will face off on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Roots Athletic Center in Westfield. Meanwhile, Easthampton will stay ready for the upcoming MIAA Division 4 tournament; the Eagles were ranked No. 21 in the most recent power rankings.
“Playing in [Class B] is kind of a reach for us. When we get to the state tournament, we feel like we probably won’t play a team as good as this for a couple of rounds at least,” Easthampton head coach Brian Miller said. “We don’t mind playing these teams to kind of get that experience… just to see this kind of speed and ability. This should help us.”
Belchertown came out fast in the opening half, getting on the board 11 minutes into the game. After hitting the post early, the Orioles kept on the pressure until Aida Name managed to send a perfectly placed pass up ahead to Corish, who buried it for a 1-0 lead.
Just over five minutes later, the home team struck again. Ribeiro found herself wide open in front of the net, and sent a beautiful ball high toward the right corner to make it 2-0. Belchertown stayed up by a pair at halftime.
After Corish scored her second goal of the game in the opening minutes of the second, Ribeiro tallied her second tally about 20 minutes later. She turned and launched a high ball 20 yards down the field, soaring high over Barr’s head and neatly into the goal.
Despite the final score, Barr kept Easthampton in the game for as long as she could, making eight stops in the shutout loss.