The seniors on the Mount Greylock girls' soccer team had just one objective heading into Tuesday night's quarterfinal against Hoosac Valley.
Win their final home game.
For the seniors, it was the final home game of their high school careers. Some, like Margot Besnard, had played five seasons worth of varsity games on John T. Allen Field.
"This is incredible, this defines our season," Besnard said after making 16 saves in Tuesday night's win. "This was my last time playing on this field. I wanted to put everything I had into it and every girl on our team saw that in me and I saw that in them. And we all worked our hardest."
Besnard, along with Alexa Adams and Alexandra DeVeaux have been playing together for much longer than their high school careers.
"This was our last home game ever," Adams said after the win. "Margot, Alexandra and I have been playing together for 10 years. This is just an amazing way to end it."
The Mounties survived two overtime periods and dispatched their North County rivals in penalty kicks. Now the team must move on from the win. The Mounties are the lone Division II girls team from Berkshire County remaining in the Western Massachusetts tournament.
No. 1 seeded Belchertown awaits the Mounties. Belchertown finished the season with a 16-0-2 record and won its quarterfinal game 7-0 over Easthampton. Perhaps a bigger challenge is recovering and refocusing following a 100
"I think we've been thinking about [the Hoosac] game a lot, and it's been distracting both in school and while trying to sleep at night," Adams said. "We just need to refocus in practice and put this game behind us. We have to keep the momentum from the win and get ready for Belchertown."
The Mounties will travel to Northampton on Friday night with their male counterparts to take on Belchertown. Both teams are the No. 4 seed in the tournament and both will challenge No. 1 Belchertown for a chance to play in their respective Western Massa chusetts Division II championship game. The girls will start at 5 p.m. and the boys begin at 7.
"We have nothing to lose now. We're the four seed and they are the one," Adams said. "This game is out there for us, but anything after [advancing to the semifinal] would just be great."
Not even 24 hours after dispatching its county rival for the third time this season the mind set had began to change for Greylock. Following a half day of school, the Mounties had an early practice Wednesday. Coach Tom Ostheimer held the practice inside and kept it light so the team could recover from a physically and emotionally exhausting contest the night before.
"[Tuesday] night their attitude was that we had accomplished a huge amount this year, but it was different at practice," he said. "There was less complacency with what we've achieved. Now it's more looking at the opportunity that we have, which is nice for me to see.
"They seem to have that desire to go further. They're excited we have a chance to be in the title game."
The Mounties will be playing short-handed heading into the semifinal tilt. Majetich will not return to the team this season, leaving a large hole in the offense. Sophie Leamon, Kelsey Orpin and Geneeva LeSage have combined to help fill Majetich's role. Sophomore Lucy Barrett will also be out with a concussion, leaving a void on defense. Without Barrett, the defense has just four members, meaning they do not have any reserves during the game.
"We need to heal our bodies over the next couple of days," Ostheimer said. "So much of our season has been about Hoosac, and we're the sole surviving Division II team in the county. We have to represent the county well and the girls are excited about that."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
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