Boys lacrosse: South Hadley’s Tyler Quist reaches 100-point milestone in thrilling OT win over Belchertown

SOUTH HADLEY — Tyler Quist tallied his 100th career point, along with scoring the game-winning goal in a 4-3 overtime thriller for the South Hadley boys lacrosse team against Belchertown on Tuesday night.

Not even two minutes into the contest, the Tigers had possession on the offensive end with the score still 0-0, finding Quist behind the net. The sophomore surveyed, winding around the left post, putting a move on the defender in front of him, before depositing the ball across the goal line for his 100th career point.

“It was awesome, a great feeling,” Quist said. “It just felt like I was done. I was just like, ‘I finished it, I got my 100th point, and now I’m onto my 200th point. It’s a great milestone, but I’ve got to keep going.'”

Having the milestone out of the way just one minute, 52 seconds into the first quarter allowed Quist to focus on just playing his game, helping him eventually score the game-winner.

After regulation ended with the score tied 3-3, the teams had a brief intermission ahead of the overtime period. The message for South Hadley was simple.

“We’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net, we’ve got to finish,” Tigers head coach Mike O’Neill said to his team. “Keep doing what we’re doing on defense and just finish the ball.”

With 90 seconds left in overtime, Quist found himself with the ball behind the net once again. Similarly to his goal to open the scoring, he hugged close to the net, wrapping his stick from behind the netting past the left post, with his shot hitting the netting and giving his squad the narrow victory.

Quist added another goal just over three minutes into the second quarter to give South Hadley a 2-1 lead at the time, once again finding success wrapping around from behind the net. The hat trick performance for the sophomore was capped off by an assist in the fourth quarter.

With just under six minutes in regulation, Quist sent a pass out front from behind the net to Gavin Quist on the left side of the net, quickly ripping a shot on goal that made its way through.

“I just need one goal to start heating up,” Quist said. “And I think that one goal really got me going, and I was fired up.”

The Orioles did their best to match the Quist brothers’ scoring output, never falling behind by more than one goal, but also never holding the lead.

Grayden Kendall scored Belchertown’s third goal of the night with just over two minutes left to play, fighting through a double team to tie things up and give his squad a chance in the overtime period.

Steven Ryan and Tabari Mann scored the other two goals for the Orioles in the loss, with their offensive efforts coming up just short in a defensive battle on both sides.

“We had a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of shots we should have taken that we didn’t, a lot of passes that we missed, just things like that,” Belchertown head coach Josh Wallace said.

Both teams struggled to find consistent offensive opportunities throughout Tuesday’s contest, largely due to how sharp the defensive game plans were. The seven total goals scored between both sides were the lowest total either squad has been a part of this season.

The Orioles did well to limit the high-powered Tigers’ attack, dictating the pace of the game and controlling possession. Despite fewer chances than they may have wanted, South Hadley made the most of its opportunities when it mattered most.

After squeaking out the narrow victory, the Tigers improve to 4-3 on the year, with their next game coming up on Thursday, April 16, at 4 p.m. on the road against Agawam.

With the loss, Belchertown’s slow start to the year continues, putting its record at 1-5 after breaking an 0-4 start to the season last week. The Orioles will be back in action on Friday, April 17, at 4 p.m. on the road to take on Lenox.

“[South Hadley’s] always a competitive team,” Wallace said. “They’ve played a bunch of teams that we’ve played, and I’m very happy to see where we are now compared to the teams that we’re playing in the future. It’s a good feeling for me to see that we played them pretty good… I’m very optimistic about us.”