SOUTH HADLEY — Rich Marjanski had high praise for his defense following the South Hadley girls soccer team’s 1-0 win over Chicopee Comp on Tuesday afternoon.

Now in his eighth season as head coach of the Tigers, a tenure in which his teams have won a state championship and multiple Western Mass. titles, Marjanski thinks this year’s team may just have the strongest group of defenders out of his near-decade with South Hadley.

Its three consecutive shutouts and only two surrendered goals through six games back up Marjanski’s claim. Seniors Margo Watkins, Maggie Evans and Emma Levreault alongside junior Gwen Marion are the four that hold down the back line.

“Defensively all the way around, we had to mark some of their tough players, and I thought they did a great job — especially putting a zero on the board,” Marjanski said. “This is probably one of the best defenses I’ve had over the years. They’re very experienced. They’ve been through a lot and seen a lot. They’re very good with their feet and body, but they’re also winning balls in the air. I’ve never had that air presence from any of my teams. These girls step in and head it out of troublesome areas.”

There were two big question marks for the Tigers entering this fall. Who was going to replace Drew Alley in goal, and which players were going to step up with Lauren Marjanski (43 goals, 11 assists in 2023) gone?

Well, both of those have been answered now a third of the way through the regular season.

Freshman Olivia Athas filled Alley’s shoes right away, and her 13 saves – including a key one late in the second half to deny a Chicopee Comp equalizer – on Tuesday put her at 57 for the year already. She’s exactly what South Hadley needed in the box.

“She’s a freshman that came in, and she’s so athletic and has been playing unbelievable,” Rich Marjanski said of Athas. “She’s stepped into the role and just took it and ran with it. She accepted the role and now she’s learning every day and is getting better every day, which is fun to watch.”

Offensively, it’s still a bit of a work-in-progress for South Hadley, but the strides are apparent. Last season, only Allison Fleury scored more than 10 goals outside of Lauren Marjanski’s 43. Nobody else had more than four.

And although Kate McArdle has emerged as the team’s go-to option so far, eight different players have tallied goals only a half dozen games in. McArdle buried a beauty on Tuesday, finding herself free in the box and sending a volley from Marion over the arms of Colts goalie Mo Donoghue and below the bar for the lone goal.

The dynamic may be different, but the Tigers’ offense is as lethal as ever.

“It’s fun to watch,” Marjanski said. “We have some young girls and some experienced girls that are really taking a role in scoring goals. They know we don’t have that big-time goal scorer… The girls are really adapting to it. We’ve become a better passing team, playing feet and winning the 50-50 balls. It’s more of a team dynamic this year. And we’re getting better, which is great.”

Possession was dominated by South Hadley in each 40-minute segment. Any time Donoghue collected the ball from a Tigers shot, she would boot it out to midfield hoping to slow down their attack.

But they were always first to the ball, playing it through the levels of the field one-by-one to get it right back into Chicopee Comp’s defensive third.

The Colts were suffocated all game long, and 32 South Hadley shots were the result.

“That’s something that we’ve really worked on, being first to the ball,” Marjanski said. “And every single kid on our team feeds off that. If we’re winning balls, that means we’re keeping the play in their end of the field, and good things happen when we do that.”

South Hadley (4-1-1) hosts Pope Francis on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in a battle of league heavyweights.