GRANBY — Bob Weaver knew Friday afternoon’s matchup with Hampshire Regional would be a good early-season test for his Granby girls soccer team, as the Raiders are consistently one of the top teams in Hampshire County.
And less than 10 minutes in, it was clear his Rams were up for the challenge. Kalli White put in an early goal and after the Raiders tied it up five minutes later, she added another on a highlight-reel tally from well outside the box that gave Granby a 2-1 lead it would not surrender.
Margo Healy also scored from far out, this one coming in the waning minutes of the first half to make it 3-1 — which would be the final as Granby’s defense held steady against a ferocious Hampshire attack.
The Rams improved to 2-0, a solid start to their first year in the newly arranged Central League.
“Our league has great teams top to bottom,” Weaver said. “This was our first game in our league, and we knew Hampshire would be tough. [Raiders head coach] Steve Croft is a great coach, and he had them ready to play. We’re still learning, but it’s been a great start. We’re playing some good soccer, doing a lot of good passing. I can’t say enough about how well we played in all aspects of the game.”
Brenna Moreno and Mylin Laliberte assisted White’s goals. White dished out an assist on Healy’s goal, which gave her three points on the afternoon. She had four points (three goals, one assist) in Granby’s win over Drury in the season opener, giving her seven total already through only two games. The junior has been a staple in the Rams’ lineup since she was in eighth grade, and that’s clearly not going to change this year.
Weaver has watched her game develop over the course of her time on varsity and she seems to have taken another leap as a player in 2025.
“Other teams have to worry about her, which has been opening up other girls,” Weaver said. “It opened up our eighth grader (Healy) today, and not many can hit the ball the way she did on that goal. But I’ve had Kalli for four years now, and she’s done nothing but work on her game each year. The way she’s passing and distributing and moving off the ball to get it back, she’s been great.”
Granby’s defense, which lost much of last year’s production to graduation, did all it had to in the second half to keep the lead intact. There are only three seniors on the Rams team this fall — Laliberte, Kaitlyn Curran and Ava Elizabeth Loughman — and all three of them play on Granby’s back line. They held their own against the Raiders and their strong trio of Rylee Joseph, Addie Miklasiewicz and Libby Puttick.
Hampshire generated several quality chances in the second half especially, but it couldn’t quite execute when finding a crease to shoot.
“I think we played hard all the way through,” Croft said. “The score was 3-1 at halftime and that’s what it ended. We created some chances in the second half. You have to give credit to Granby. They were tough defensively. They made it difficult for us to get into their attacking third. We’ll definitely learn from this, take what we can and get better.”
The Raiders’ tally came off the foot of Rylee Joseph about 11 minutes into the game. That would be their one and only score of the afternoon as Granby goalie Meredith Bartosz made 10 saves, several of them of the diving variety to hold Hampshire at one. Raiders goalie Karaghan Rogalski made four saves on the other side.
Hampshire (0-2) next hosts Amherst on Monday night (7 p.m.) while Granby (2-0) returns to action on Tuesday afternoon (4 p.m.) at home against Southwick.
Smith Academy 2, Mahar 0 — Anna Scagel connected on a beautiful 25-yard free kick before potting another goal 11 minutes later, as the Falcons senior netted both of her team’s goals in a shutout win on Friday afternoon in Hatfield.
Smith Academy goalie Vivian Higuera was tremendous as well, stopping a whopping 15 shots to blank the Senators. Maya Bell added an assist for Smith Academy in a game that was back-and-forth the entire 80 minutes.
“Mahar possessed [the ball] more but we kept most of their shots to the perimeter,” Falcons head coach Don Fraser said. “We were able to get through their back line a couple times. The difference maker in the game was Vivian Higuera.”
Smith Vocational 4, Hoosac Valley 0 — It was the Isabella Letourneau show on Friday afternoon, as the Vikings forward tallied all four of Smith Voc’s goals in an impressive display of offense in Northampton.
Savannah Fredette, Erin Miller and Julianis Suarez dished out assists in the win. The Vikings defense was dominant, as they held the Hurricanes to zero shots on goal.
Easthampton 7, Holyoke 2 — Alanna Halpin scored four times for the Eagles as they put up a touchdown against the Purple Knights on Friday afternoon. Arie Kuchyt scored twice and Samone Young tallied as well for Easthampton. Noella Ryan made eight saves in the win.
Holyoke’s goals came off the feet of Kyra Lippman and Leilany Figueroa, while goalie Jennaya Torres stopped 16 shots for the Knights.
South Hadley 3, West Springfield 1 — A balanced effort led the Tigers to a decisive win over the Terriers on Friday night, as five different players recorded a point and goalie Olivia Athas made nine saves.
Grace Sherman scored twice for South Hadley, Cara Dean added a goal while Violet Carillon, Kiana Ramos and Hannah Haesaert dished out assists.
Ludlow 1, Northampton 0 — The Blue Devils suffered a shutout loss on Friday night.
Northampton falls to 1-1 on the season.
Boys soccer
Northampton 2, Pittsfield 0 — It was a quiet day for Blue Devils goalie Salem Gregory, who didn’t have to record a single save in his team’s shutout win over the Generals on Friday afternoon at Kirvin Park in Pittsfield.
Will Senn-McNally scored first for the visitors while Johnny Nields-Duffy took a pass from Derek Rivers and buried a goal to double Northampton’s lead up. The Blue Devils seemed to have picked right up where they left off in 2024 and are in line for another strong season.
South Hadley 1, Central 1 — Matt Gillis scored the lone Tigers goal, which was unassisted, as they tied the Golden Eagles on Friday afternoon in South Hadley.
South Hadley keeper Noah Carillon made five saves for South Hadley.
Amherst 3, Agawam 2 — The Hurricanes won their second 3-2 game in a row to start their season, this one coming at home against Agawam on Friday afternoon.
Daniel Nunez Savaria, David Teixeira and Eliam De Los Reyes scored the goals for Amherst in the victory.
Frontier 1, Chicopee Comp 0 – Xavier Fripp netted the game’s only goal for the Redhawks, scoring a second-half marker to help them move to 2-0 on the season thanks to Friday’s 1-0 Holley League win.
Belchertown 3, East Longmeadow 0 — Timothy Haley scored twice for the Orioles, which picked up their first win of the season in dominant fashion on Friday night in East Longmeadow.
Alexander Ryczek notched Belchertown’s other goal while Chase Connor tallied two assists and Tyler Stahl added an assist. Luke Dudek made eight saves to earn the shutout in goal.
Field hockey
Smith Academy 8, Holyoke 0 — It was an offensive onslaught for the Falcons on Friday, as they received a hat trick and an assist from junior Bella Gavron and four points (one goal, three assists) from sophomore Isabella Bramucci to run past the Purple Knights in Holyoke.
Sophia Jagodzinski added one goal and two assists, seventh grader Ashlyn Moynihan notched a pair of goals and Shae Moulton tallied one for the visitors. Sophomore goalie Chloe Avery and her defensive unit posted a dominant shutout on that end of the field.
“The team showed up hungry today to advance us to 2-0,” head coach Karlie Guimond said. “There were many beautiful goals, sharp passes and great leadership from my three captains Molly O’Brien, Marissa Belina and Bella Gavron.”
Belchertown 2, Southwick 1 — There’s nothing quite like the taste of revenge, and the Orioles waltzed into the home of the Rams and got their fix of it on Friday afternoon in Southwick. After losing to Southwick in the Western Mass. Class B finals a year ago, Belchertown dominated for all 60 minutes to come away with a 2-1 win.
The Os put 20 shots on goal in the victory, with Rachel Baltazar and Edith Audette finding the back of the cage for their two tallies. Kina Roy assisted on both goals as Belchertown’s facilitator in the middle. Lila Roy made six stops in goal.
Girls volleyball
Smith Vocational 3, Sci-Tech 0 — Heidymar Diaz-Lopez was a force on Friday evening, as she had nine aces, three kills, three assists and five digs in an all-around effort. Roma Bentrewicz had two aces, a team-high 11 assists and one kill, Leah Franklin put down seven kills and Irelyn Marcoux posted six kills, three aces and three digs for the Vikings.
Set scores were 25-14, 25-10, 25-11.
“The team worked hard to keep the pressure on and not let up,” Smith Voc head coach Ashley Clark said.
Golf
Hampshire 157, Hopkins 169 — Two Hampshire County heavyweights squared off on Friday afternoon at Blanford Country Club, and it was the Raiders coming out on top behind a stellar round of 34 from Brayden Fennessy. Hopkins’ Ryley Regan shot a 34 of her own.
Other scorers for Hampshire were Riley Florek (39), Colby Cabrini (41) and Declan Butler (43). Hopkins’ other three scorers were Aiden Keeling-Lococo (38), Chace Earle (48) and Laney Crutch (49).
Easthampton 186, SICS 228 — Jacob Murrett’s round of 43 earned him medalist honors as the Eagles defending their home course of Wyckoff Country Club to earn their second win of 2024.
Bryce Evans (46), Angelo Torchia (48) and Evan Kalin (49) rounded out Easthampton’s scorers as all four golfers broke 50.
