WESTFIELD — A victory was in sight for the Granby girls soccer team against defending state champion Millbury Wednesday.
Nora Young scored to give Granby the lead in the second half with about 18 minutes left in the state Division 3 semifinals at Westfield State.
But the Woolies came back to beat Granby, 3-2, and move on to the state finals.
It was the second season in a row that Millbury (19-3-1) sent the Rams (16-3-3) home in the state semifinals.
“They gave us an incredible season,” Granby coach Bob Weaver said. “We knew coming in our work was cut out for us. We knew we had to contain their big guns.”
The Granby defense bottled up the prolific Kelsie Cummings, but midfielder McKenna Kennedy scored twice, including the game-winner on a breakaway with 7 minutes, 28 seconds left.
The Rams’ defense, consisting of Jessica Patruno and Jordan Bessette, played Cummings physically and limited her chances.
Young scored twice for the Rams. Caroline Cyr and Summer Molin assisted on the goals for Granby.
“Put it this way,” Weaver said. Young “has a left foot that I’ve never seen on any girl, ever.”
Senior Erin Mikalchus could not finish the game for Granby, leaving the field with an apparent head injury just before halftime.
“Losing Erin in the middle of the first half was not good,” Weaver said. “She’s one of our co-captains and a leader of the team. It looked like she came out of the game with a concussion.”
Kennedy scored just before halftime to tie the game on a play where there appeared to be contact with Granby goalie Brooklyn Baran.
“I am not going to get into that,” Weaver said of the play.
Granby fans screamed for a penalty on the play. With the Woolies dominating play in the first half, Baran had to make six saves to keep Granby close.
The Woolies gave up the first goal of the game. Young took a pass from Molin and launched a shot past Millbury goalie Gabrielle Hunt, who was left flat-footed as it raced past her into the net.
After getting dominated for most of the game, Granby had a 1-0 lead before Kennedy’s goal.
Jenna Natsuti tied the game at 2-2 for Millbury on a shot that trickled past Baran.
Seniors Bessette, Cyr, Patruno, Kate Sarnacki, Kate Sullivan and Mikalchus played their last game for Granby, which collected their third Western Massachusetts title in four years on Saturday.
