WESTHAMPTON — It looked like it was heading toward a tense final minutes in the MIAA Div. 4 Round of 16 boys soccer game between Hampshire Regional and Hamilton-Wenham Wednesday night.
The top-seeded Raiders took a commanding 2-0 lead in the second half, but the No. 16 Generals showed no quit. Hamilton-Wenham’s Ethan Minster found the back of the net in the 71st minute on the Generals’ first shot on goal of the contest to draw within one in the closing minutes.
Hampshire’s defense made sure that was the only shot goalie Elan Kuntz would see however, as the club didn’t allow another shot on goal. Grady Fern tallied in the 73rd minute off a cross from Matt Solan to put the game away and send the Raiders into the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory.
“We’re always on the attack,” Fern said. “We were on the attack the majority of the game. Matt made a beautiful cross and all I had to do was flick it in.”
After sophomore forward Aidan Miklasiewicz went down with an injury in the first half, it was on the entire Raider offense to find ways to put points on the board.
They did just that, as three different Hampshire players recorded goals.
“We’ve had scoring from many different players this year,” Raiders coach Dan Moynahan said. “Losing Aidan to injury was a big difference. I knew we had other people on the team who could score. When you have other people rise to the occasion, it gives the team confidence because they know no matter what happens in a game, we have a solution to it.”
Hampshire cashed in on the only shot on goal by either team in the first half.
Freshman Dan Martin sent a ball up to Miklasiewicz, who tapped it over Hamilton-Wenham keeper Liam Heney in the 23rd minute to give the Raiders the early advantage.
“That’s a hustle goal,” Fern said. “[Martin is] a freshman and out here doing stuff. It was an ice breaker and a huge confidence booster. It’s what we needed.”
The second half saw Hampshire come out and put extended pressure on the General defense, keeping the play away from its side of the field.
The Raiders forced Heney to make five saves in the final 40 minutes of action, pushing the pace and keeping Hamilton-Wenham on its toes.
“The first thing we did was put our press on in the second half more than we did in the first,” Moynahan said. “The offensive change was to play one-touch soccer and play the feet instead of lumping the ball forward.”
Eventually all that pressure led to a scoring chance. Hampshire earned a corner in the 66th minute, where Fern sent a perfect cross into a charging Chase Corbeil, who knocked it home to give the Raiders a two-goal cushion.
“Any time your team scores, you have all the energy and it deflates the energy of the other team,” Moynahan said. “That moment was important. The quality of the ball Grady put in the box, I knew it was going in the second Owen was there. It was a moment of quality.”
Defensively it was a near flawless performance by the Hampshire defense, with Minster’s goal the lone it’s conceded through two state tournament games.
“We made best with the field conditions,” Hampshire defender AJ Dybacki said. “The ball was bouncing everywhere. We made sure to settle it down, kick it out when we had to, play it short and build out through the back.”
The Raiders now host No. 8 Wahconah in the quarterfinals on Saturday, with kickoff still to be determined at press time.