HOLYOKE — The bounces on the slick turf at Holyoke’s Roberts Sports Complex went Gateway Regional’s way early and the Gators controlled play the rest of the way.
The No. 2 seed was never threatened as Gateway rolled to a 3-0 win over No. 3 Mount Everett, Wednesday in the Western Massachusetts Division 4 Girls Soccer Tournament.
The Gators (14-2-4) will face undefeated No. 1 Monson (20-0) in the finals at a time and location that hasn’t been announced yet. The Eagles finished their season 15-3-2.
Gateway caught a break 7 minutes, 10 seconds into the game when Erin Harris’ long bouncing pass across the front of the net eluded Eagles goalie Madison Ullrich, leaving Taryn Kubik with an open net to fire at just off the left post. The senior tucked it in to put the Gators up 1-0.
They doubled that edge less than four minutes later. On a corner kick from the left side, Juliana Dickinson served the ball toward the net. Ullrich deflected the ball toward the front of the net where it pinballed off a defender right back into the goal to make it 2-0 with 30:01 left in the first half.
“We got some breaks,” Gateway coach Steve Estelle said. “It was kind of unusual to be up 2-0 in such a short period of time. We were making good runs.”
The Gators put the game away early in the second half when Samantha Belardo deftly booted Angela Wright’s pass out of the air and into the net to make it 3-0 with 32:06 left.
Belardo knows the Western Mass. final will be tough.
“We just have to play our game. We can give them competition I think,” she said.
Mount Everett never got a true scoring chance as Becca Herman made just one save. Gateway effectively kept the ball pinned in the Eagles’ half of field almost the entire game.
“Our two fullbacks, Bryanna Fellows and Megan Wright had their best games,” Estelle said.
It was the second straight season Gateway eliminated the Eagles.
“We have a young group. This stuff is new for them,” Mount Everett coach Jessica Murtagh said. “We didn’t play our best today. We’re looking forward to next year. Definitely.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.