Class D boys soccer: Granby wins first-ever WMass title with 2-1 win over Monson (PHOTOS)
Published: 10-31-2023 10:06 PM |
SPRINGFIELD – After inching closer and closer to a Western Mass. championship but coming up short over the past two seasons, the Granby boys soccer team finally climbed its way to the top.
Clinging to a one-goal lead in the final minutes, the seventh-seeded Rams did just enough to survive and hang on for a 2-1 win over No. 4 Monson in the Class D title game. It was the first Western Mass. championship in program history.
Granby lost a nail-biter in the finals a year ago, and a tight quarterfinal match the year before. The Rams took a huge leap on Tuesday night at Springfield Central High School’s Berte Field.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Granby head coach Todd Dorman said. “All the years, all the great teams that I’ve had have just come a little bit short. Our message has been control our season, and that’s what they did. Monson put the pressure on, and we just did what we could to control the game, and control the season.
Rams senior Nico Grandmont executed a corner kick to perfection with just under 15 minutes to play in the second half. Grandmont made a run for the back post, and Jaxton Roy delivered the corner in an ideal spot for his teammate.
Grandmont, a righty, struck the ball out of mid-air with his left foot and beat the Mustangs keeper to build the Rams lead to 2-0.
The goal served as the game-winner as Monson responded minutes later to make it 2-1.
Being a senior, making a huge impact in the title game meant everything for Grandmont.
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“It feels great. Senior year, my last year playing, and I was able to score and win Western Mass., that’s a big thing,” he said. “I really wasn’t expecting it to come perfectly to me… and [after I hit it] it went in towards the goal.”
Gavin Moreno got the party started for Granby with about 25 minutes left in the first half. Moreno hugged close to the Monson back line as Riley Goodhind operated with the ball at the top of the box. Goodhind floated a ball directly over the defenders’ heads, and Moreno timed his run perfectly to put home the goal off one bounce.
Moreno has now scored 19 goals this season — none bigger than that one — and he always seems to show up in huge moments for the Rams, Tuesday being no exception. Dorman moved Moreno around to make it hard for Monson to key in on him, and it allowed Moreno to find space on several occasions.
“Shifting him around and his position on the field really opened him up,” Dorman said. “He was able to become the player who he wants to be and who we want him to be. Again, finding a way. He’s got that sense.”
It looked like Monson was going to tie the game at one midway through the second half when Colin Beaupre had a free run at Granby keeper Daniel Santiago.
Beaupre dribbled into the box, but defender Cody White sprinted from behind and booted the ball out of harm’s way to keep the Rams ahead with a terrific individual effort. That goal may have changed the direction of the match, but White wasn’t going to let it happen.
“We had two defensive clears where our guys pursued the ball and took the angle,” Dorman said. “We’ve been working on taking the correct angle, and we were able to persevere the win.”
After the Monson goal with seven minutes remaining in the contest, Granby took a strong defensive approach the rest of the way. The Rams’ focal point was strictly on defense and they brought an extra guy to the back line to ensure Monson had to work extra hard to even generate a quality chance.
Any time the ball found Granby feet, the Rams would boot it as far away from their box as possible.
“It was very intense, we started losing it, bad touches, because we were so full of adrenaline,” Grandmont said. “I’m so glad we held it together, even though we were just sending it and there wasn’t really much of a goal. But, that’s all you really need, just hold off the other team.”
From starting the Western Mass. tournament as a No. 7 seed to beating the team that got the best of them in the finals last year (Smith Academy), to eventually becoming champions for the first time ever, Granby capped off its underdog story in ultimate style.
“The way that the power rankings work, it didn’t really favor us, but we’ll take a chip on our shoulder,” Dorman said. “Anything to motivate the boys, we’ll take.”