By SARAH MOOMAW
@MoomawDHG
Daily Hampshire Gazette
WESTHAMPTON — With the postseason clinched during league crossovers, the Hampshire Regional boys soccer team is focused on winning the Holley League after a rocky start at the beginning of the season. The Raiders opened the second half of conference play with a 1-0 win over Southwick under the lights yesterday.
“If we want to win league, we have to win the rest of our league matchups, so today was the first win,” said coach Dan Moynahan, whose team is one point behind Monson for first place. “It’s the first step.”
Getting a victory by any margin was key to moving up in the Holley after taking three ties in the Raiders’ first four league games. One of those ties was a 2-2 decision to the Rams on the road.
“It was definitely a successful win to kind of put us ahead in league, which we needed,” senior Brendan Bzdel said. “We knew the importance of it. They probably knew the importance of it. We just came out a little harder. We knew where to be at the right time, but they’re a good team.”
A quick and early score was all Hampshire (8-1-3, 2-0-3 Holley) needed. It also resulted in intensified play for the following 79 minutes as the two sides alternated possession, missed shots and played solid defense in front of composed goalies.
Bzdel took an early corner throw-in, which found the feet of Colin Dearborn. He had space to make a play and tucked a shot into the left side with 48 seconds elapsed.
“The ball came over, plopped right in front of me. His cross was awesome. It made it easy to put in,” Dearborn said. “(The defense) gravitated to the ball when it was coming in, so it left a lot of space in front of me to make a shot.”
Bzdel said he has only recently started taking corners, as it has been an emphasis in practice to get everyone involved on the set piece. Converting the early chance gave the Raiders a lead, but as play went on without a score change, the intensity picked up.
“It was an early goal, so going throughout the game, you’re kind of worried about which side (the ball is) coming from and where to be at all the time because at any point they can put it away and then it’s a 1-1 game,” Bzdel said. “It turned into that kick-and-run game, basically that tie-game momentum, really a no-possession-type thing and we had to hold our own, be stronger than their offense and trying and push forward.”
Moynahan said he felt Southwick (6-3-3, 2-1-2) matched up with his team well on the field, but had the upper hand with size. Bigger bodies made it harder to win high balls and players got tangled up more trying to get around defenders.
“They are very tough in the middle and won a lot of head balls,” Moynahan said. “They cut down passing lanes better than a lot of other teams we’ve played. We tried going through them and over them, neither of them really worked.”
Nick O’Hare made seven stops in net to protect the shutout, his seventh of the season. O’Hare and the defense in front of him have only allowed four goals all season.
The Rams were forced to take long shots from downfield as the Hampshire back line kept them at a distance. When they did get close, O’Hare moved toward the ball, which usually resulted in a wide or long shot, or the defense retreated to chase Southwick out. O’Hare twice got just enough of his fingertips on the ball to deflect the shot.
“The defense in front of Nick has been exceptional all year,” Moynahan said. “I thought Southwick did a nice job taking their chance. We gave them space in front of our back four so they were launching shots from 25, 30 yards out. Nick just had his positioning down.”
Sarah Moomaw can be reached at [email protected].
