Div. 4 boys soccer: Aidan Miklasiewicz’s late winner sends Hampshire Regional to Final Four (PHOTOS)

CHICOPEE – The No. 3 Hampshire boys soccer team couldn’t believe it hadn’t found the back of the net yet. As Friday night’s MIAA Division 4 quarterfinal game against No. 11 Lunenburg ticked under 10 minutes, the scoreboard still showed zeroes despite their colossal advantage in time of possession and shots.

But the Raiders never let it phase them.

With just over eight minutes remaining in the game, senior captain Aidan Miklasiewicz played give-and-go with junior Brendan Stevenson. Stevenson chipped the ball into the box for Miklasiewicz to run under. 

After the senior played it with his chest to settle it at his feet just inside the penalty stripe, he buried the ball in the bottom right corner to give Hampshire a 1-0 lead — an advantage the Raiders would hold on to, sending them to the state semifinals for the second time in three years via the 1-0 final.

“It’s an awesome feeling to make it this far,” Miklasiewicz said. “But this isn’t where we wanna end. We’re excited to be here, but we just wanna keep going.”

Between Stevenson, midfielder Aidan Moynahan, and Miklasiewicz, the three have built a strong connection on the pitch. 

“All my goals pretty much come through Brendan and Aidan,” Miklasiewicz said. “I couldn’t score any goals without them playing me the balls that they play in.”

About midway through the first half Miklasiewicz went down after an aggressive slide tackle from behind from a Lunenburg defender. He writhed in pain and was in clear discomfort while being carried off by two teammates.

A few minutes later, he checked back into the game — which he described as inevitable.

“I knew I was gonna come back in, it was just a little knock,” Miklasiewicz said. “You get injured sometimes, you just gotta fight through it.”

Hampshire seemingly had the ball on the attacking half of the field for at least 75 percent of the game. Blue Knights goalie Bryce Whalen put forth an incredible effort to keep the game tied, making countless diving saves and effort plays.

But it wasn’t enough to keep the relentless Raiders from breaking through.

“There was a little bit [of tension building], but we knew that we would break through at some point,” Stevenson said. “We had so much pressure on them the whole game, so I wasn’t too worried, personally.”

Lunenburg had a big, physical back line that also made it difficult to find clean looks in some scenarios.

“They were strong in the back, they were tall and big,” Aidan Moynahan said. “We just had to keep pushing, that was it.”

Hampshire was able to find success almost every time when it tried its patented long throw-in, something the team had struggled with early in the year.

The Raiders used the strong arms of Tim Slate any time there was a throw in the attacking third to put the ball in near the goal and create a scoring chance. 

“It’s something we grew into, because we weren’t good at them at all in the beginning of the year,” Hampshire head coach Dan Moynahan said. “The timing was off, and Brendan adjusted the way he was sliding the ball off his head the second half of the season. It grew into an offensive threat for us.”

Although the Hampshire defense didn’t necessarily have to do a whole lot of defending because the offense dominated the game, the back line was still heavily involved in starting breakouts and also keeping the ball forward.

Friday marked the ninth shutout of the season for Hampshire thanks in large part to its strong defense and timely goaltending by Colin Holt.

“We couldn’t do what we do without them,” Aidan Moynahan said of the defense. “We can trust them to take the ball down there and get it right back up to our feet within a matter of seconds.”

“There were a couple times the ball was on our (defensive) side,” Miklasiewicz added. “We know we can trust them. We have a great goalie and a great back four, so even if they didn’t have a lot of pressure on them, the plays that they did make were great.”

Hampshire (19-0-3) advanced to take on the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal between No. 2 Lynnfield and No. 7 Monument Mountain in the Final Four, hoping to move on to the state championship game.