SOUTH HADLEY – As you reach the heavyweight rounds, little separates the remaining teams in the MIAA soccer tournaments.
Such was the case for top-seeded South Hadley on Saturday, as visiting Dover-Sherborn, the No. 8 seeds in the Division 3 girls soccer field, cashed in on an opportunity just before halftime and held on.
The visiting Raiders sprung the road upset, notching a 1-0 victory over the Tigers in the quarterfinal round to punch a ticket to the Final Four.
Dover-Sherborn (14-4-3) will meet No. 4 Hanover in the semifinal round this week.
South Hadley (19-2-1) lost for just the first time since Sept. 7.
“You get to this time of year and not much separates a lot of teams,” South Hadley coach Rich Marjanski said. “I watched some film on them and I knew – especially they were mostly seniors and juniors – they’re very good, they play a strong possession game. It’s a learning situation to make it this far. Hopefully they learn from it and then we can keep the momentum going next year.”
The Raiders struck for the game’s only goal just before intermission. Off a failed clearance on a goal kick, Dover-Sherborn’s Natasha Ceol pounced on a loose ball and calmly launched a shot from 30 yards out. The perfectly-placed ball found the corner of the South Hadley net, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead with about 30 seconds remaining before half.
“That’s one little mistake, there’s probably 55 seconds in the half and we missed a trap off of a goal kick,” Marjanski said.
The Raiders put together a strong game plan in order to hold on the rest of the way. A solid ball possession team, Dover-Sherborn controlled the ball and spread the field throughout the 80 minutes. That limited opportunities on the counter attack for the Tigers, which struggled to get the ball up top to leading scorer Lauren Marjanski (36 goals on the year).
Cianna Gurek’s shot from distance was arguably the best scoring opportunity for the Tigers in the second half. South Hadley’s defense elevated its play down the stretch, with heroic performances from Kacie Levrault and Madelyn McArdle keeping it a one-goal deficit.
Still, the Tigers were unable to hold consistent possession for spells throughout the afternoon, and the Raiders cleaned up defensively in the waning minutes to run out the clock.
“I told the girls, it sucks to lose, but you have nothing to be ashamed of,” Marjanski offered. “It’s just experience. I think they’ll take a lot from this experience. They’ll have to know what to do going forward, have to take advantage of their chances. Any one of a few things can turn a game like this around.”