AMHERST — Patrick Staudenmayer was the Amherst boys soccer team’s leading scorer as a junior a season ago, and on Tuesday, he kicked off his senior campaign in style.
Staudenmayer netted two goals and the Hurricanes defense swarmed South Hadley en route to a 2-0 season-opening victory.
With under 15 minutes in the first half, Staudenmayer elevated above the rest of the defense to connect on a header, and guided it by Tigers goalie Noah Carillon to get the scoring started. Early on in the second half, Staudenmayer received a pass from Jonah Eggemeier (two assists), took one touch, and blasted a shot home from outside of the box to give Amherst some cushion and eventually give them the win over the defending Division 4 state champions.
“I thought we did a lot of really good things,” Amherst head coach Matt Travis said. “There are a couple of things we need to fine tune a little bit, but I’m really proud. A 2-0 shutout win at home, I’m really happy with the guys.”
Carillon didn’t make it easy on Amherst. The South Hadley goalie made a plethora of diving saves, including one on a rocket of a shot from Alioun Sarr with 18 minutes left in the first half to keep the game tied. Carillon made 12 saves, several of them via acrobatic efforts, to keep the Tigers within striking distance all game.
“Their keeper, even though we won, I thought was the man of the match,” Travis said of Carillon. “He played extremely well to keep them in it. I think they’re going to win a lot of games just because of his play back there.”
Staudenmayer, senior Owen Candito, and Sarr were dominant in the midfield for Amherst, controlling the entirety of the match and keeping the ball away from South Hadley. The trio are three of the more skilled players on the Hurricanes roster, and Travis expects them to be the key to their success this season.
“I thought there was a lot of leadership in the midfield, and a lot of communication” Travis said. “Their movement was really good, they stayed connected. I want them to play a little bit faster, though, and we can get to that next level – but this was a great start for them.”
The Hurricanes were well aware South Hadley entered this season as the defending Division 4 state champions. Knowing his team might have felt a bit of intimidation due to that, Travis made sure his squad was focused and ready to go for Tuesday.
“[South Hadley] had an amazing run last year,” Travis said. “What I tell our guys is that it’s a clean slate, we have to make sure we attack every game, every play, no matter what the team did last year. This is a new year. I thought we came out and had a lot of momentum today, and we played really well in the first half.”
Not only is South Hadley a completely different squad from last year having graduated 14 seniors, but the Tigers are also taking orders from a new voice. Mike Gauthier is the new man in charge, taking over for Eric Castonguay and inheriting a very young team that consists of 25 – including junior varsity – freshmen and sophomores. The past couple of seasons South Hadley has started slow, but turned it on as the year goes on. Gauthier thinks this could be a similar situation with his inexperienced group.
“We’re looking for a lot of development,” Gauthier said. “We’re going to grow every day, we’re going to grow every week, and as long as we can get through September, we can be alright. The last two years we’ve done really well, but we’ve always started kind of slow.”
Amherst played in 13 games decided by one goal or fewer in 2022. The Hurricanes certainly have the ability to hang around with good teams, now they just have to take that leap to get over the hump and start winning those contests. Travis was pleased with his team’s overall efforts, especially considering it was the season opener. His concerns moving forward were minor.
“I think our fitness needs to be a little bit better, and I think our communication can be better,” Travis said. “I think we need to be able to win those second balls, just the little details that will be the difference in the game. We have to make sure we focus on those little details.”
Amherst (1-0) returns to action home against Ludlow on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The Hurricanes will have a better idea how they stack up with their league when that contest concludes.
South Hadley (0-1) travels to Easthampton on Friday for a 4 p.m. game with the Eagles.
