GRANBY — The Granby girls lacrosse team continued its hot start to the young season, defeating Hampshire in a 13-11 back-and-forth battle on Friday night.
Late in the first quarter, the Rams’ leading scorer, Kalli White, went down with an injury shortly after scoring her third goal of the contest. With Granby’s main source of offense sidelined, the rest of the team rose to the occasion, finding new ways to score.
Five different players scored in the Rams’ 13-goal night, attacking from all angles. The team did well to control possession, moving the ball around to keep the defense on their toes.
“It was a real team effort,” Granby head coach Gary O’Grady said. “I thought everybody stepped up… It’s hard to say anybody, any one individual [stood out].”
Brenna Moreno facilitated the offensive attack, communicating with her teammates. The junior tallied a pair of goals in the victory, adding on an assist in the process.
Ava-Elizabeth Loughman and Mylin Laliberte each were relentless in their offensive approaches in the win, both scoring hat tricks.
The Rams found a lot of success getting to ground balls throughout the night, making the most of their extra opportunities.
“Whenever the ball was on the ground, we were all over it,” O’Grady said. “That’s what we’re trying to teach them to do on these loose balls.”
McKenna Zumbruski also scored one goal for Granby, along with two assists, while Carli Zobka rounded out the scoring with a goal of her own.
The Raiders held the lead at the half, 8-6, with their attack leading the way out of the gate.
Reese O’Connell and Rylie Simmons each finished the night with a hat trick in the loss, doing their best to hold the lead in the second half.
Turnovers plagued Hampshire down the stretch, proving to be the main difference maker in the Rams’ comeback.
“There’s a lot of stuff to still clean up,” Raiders head coach Grace Ahrensdorf said. ” The score didn’t quite go in our favor, mostly from the turnovers. We felt like we gave up a lot of possessions, which gave [Granby] the scoring opportunities that they needed.”
As a young team, Hampshire showed ups and downs throughout the loss, still trying to shake the rust off just three games into the young season.
“We’re still kind of working on finding our groove and letting you know, helping everyone mesh and find our rhythm,” Ahrensdorf said. “But I think we have a lot of talent, and once it clicks, I think we’re going to be pretty strong.”
The loss puts the Raiders at 1-2 on the year, continuing a five-game road trip on Monday, April 6 at 6:15 p.m., when they take on Chicopee Comp.
With the win, the Rams improve to 2-0, continuing a seven-game homestand on Monday, April 6 at 4 p.m.
“I feel good about us,” O’Grady said. “We set a goal to make the state playoffs, and this was a big test for us. I’m very happy with the way we played. We still have a lot of work to do, but this was proof that we can play with good teams.”
Belchertown 14, Hoosac 6 — Lilly Tellier tallied six goals in a runaway victory for the Orioles on Friday night.
Lia Pikul also found a ton of success on the attack, finding the back of the net five times as well in the win.
Baseball
Smith Voc. 16, SICS 2 — Gavin Kukucka led the Vikings to a five-inning victory off the back of a 4-4 performance at the plate, including a double and four RBIs.
Owen Belden also batted 1.000 on the night, adding two doubles and three RBIs.
South Hadley 2, Mount Greylock 0 — The Tigers squeaked out a narrow victory in a Friday night pitcher’s duel.
Matthew Butler threw six shutout innings in the win, with Griffin Soderbaum driving in the one RBI of the night.
Easthampton 5, Lenox 1 — Patrick Larson sat down 12 Millionaires on swings in the Eagles’ victory.
Larson threw all seven innings and only surrendered one hit.
At the plate, Anthony Incampo went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, including a double in the process.
Softball
Smith 22, Putnam 1 — The Falcons were led by a nine-strikeout performance on the mound by Quinn Carlson, who added on one hit, one RBI and three runs scored in a substantial win on Friday night.
Emma Tisdell hit a triple, scored three runs, and had three RBIs, while Lily Harrington had one hit of her own, scoring four runs, and also had three RBIs in the win for Smith Academy.
Easthampton 15, Mahar 0 — Just five innings were needed in the Eagles’ blowout.
Summer Routhier was sensational from the circle again, striking out 14 and giving up just one hit. Maddy Urban finished with four RBIs for Easthampton.
Northampton 8, West Springfield 0 — The Blue Devils picked up its first clean sheet of the season off another great game from pitcher Greta Lepore.
Lepore struck out nine while allowing seven hits.
Of the 13 hits Northampton registered, Jayda Alejandro recorded three.
Greenfield 5, Hopkins 1 — A second Golden Hawk reached the 100 career hit plateau this week as Alayna Bailey joined Lily Ellia with a base knock in the loss to the Green Wave.
Walks sank Hopkins in this one as 10 Greenfield batters reached base on balls.
South Hadley 5, Franklin Tech 2 — The Tigers notched their third straight win in the close contest against the Eagles.
South Hadley hasn’t lost since its season opener against Greenfield.
Girls tennis
Frontier 3, Northampton 2 —Ella Sibley grabbed a win at No. 3 singles in a victory for the Redhawks in an independent match up in South Deerfield.
Sibley defeated Sofie Cosmer, 6-2, 6-0. In No. 1 doubles, Brooke Charest and Hailey Fernandez defeated Sara Stanley and Emmie Vinard, 6-0, 6-3. In No. 2 doubles, Esther Ehle and Jimin Ahn handled Ana-Lucia Ohm and Hattie Lewis, 6-2, 6-1.
Boys tennis
Amherst 5, Belchertown 0 — Brock Waldman defeated Luke Dudek 6-4, 6-1 in No. 1 singles for the Hurricanes, while Henry Michel beat Mason Pobieglo 6-3, 6-2 and Elias Katsaros won over Jake Goremly 6-1, 6-1.
In No. 1 doubles, Amitav Dhingra and Timothy Sun defeated Josh O’Connor and Liam Sherwood 6-2, 6-4 and the No. 2 group featured Archer Young and Walter Phillips winning over Jordon Kalsih and Tim Haley 6-3, 6-3.
PVCICS 5, Chicopee Comp 0 — The Dragons won their first home match of the year, with Derek Ye taking over No. 1 singles 6-0, 6-1, Devan Ye winning No. 2 6-1, 6-1 and James Ferrer coming out on top 2-6, 6-1, 10-7.
Simon Speek and Jack Herman cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win, while Ethan Wang and Adrien Melly-Wright rounded out the day winning 6-1, 7-5.
Late Thursday Results
Girls lacrosse
Wahconah 14, South Hadley 6 — Two goals from Willa Camp weren’t enough for the Tigers in the defeat.
Kelcey Zraunig (goal, assist) and Dee Haber (eight saves) also had busy nights for South Hadley.
East Longmeadow 12, Northampton 9 — The Blue Devils allowed five goals in the second quarter, which proved to be the difference in the loss.
Imanni Power-Greene (three goals, assist), Makayla Fydenkevez (three goals, assist), Kayden Braman (goal, two assists) and Mia Jones (two goals) put together multi-point games for Northampton.
