BELCHERTOWN — When Longmeadow pulled up to Jabish Brook Middle School with nine players Monday, Belchertown North initially didn’t take it seriously.

“You think ‘oh, this isn’t going to be hard,’ even though Longmeadow is a great team,” Belchertown coach Mark Caron said. “I think we just thought it was gonna be too easy, and we didn’t play our best game.”

Belchertown still managed defeat Longmeadow 2-0 in Pioneer Valley Summer Soccer league play, but Caron was disappointed by his team’s mentality and performance.

“Clearly we did not play our best game,” he said. “But we were fortunate to get a win.”

Rising senior Sean O’Neill scored both goals for Belchertown. His first came late in the first half after a foul was called on Longmeadow goalkeeper Caleb Moulema. Belchertown’s Ben LaClair took a quick restart and passed it left to O’Neill, who took his time and scored with ease.

“He was smart, he knew to take it right away, and I just got the open net,” O’Neill said.

Belchertown’s second goal came off of an impressive effort by O’Neill, who approached the ball from the left and shot it between Moulema’s legs to make the score 2-0.

Longmeadow’s Will Echeverria made several sliding saves in the defensive end to prevent Belchertown from scoring any additional goals with a numbers advantage.

Jared Smith and Matt Shea had close shots on goal for Longmeadow late in the second half but ultimately were unable to convert.

Echeverria and LaClair both received yellow cards in the second half.

Prior to Monday’s matchup, Belchertown (8-2) was in second place in Division A, while Longmeadow (5-3-2) sat in fifth. The top eight teams in the division will advance to the playoffs, beginning on Monday, July 31st.

“Our focus is really mostly on summer playoffs. We’re just trying to gain momentum going into that. Especially since we kind of had the numbers advantage tonight, we just didn’t want to let this one slip away,” O’Neill said. “We need to start better. Especially in playoffs, and then in the regular (high school) season, we’re not gonna get away with that. We have to be coming out right away.”

Both teams use the summer soccer league as a way to prepare for their respective high school seasons.

“Tryouts will happen in a few weeks. But the majority of them will be on the varsity team,” Caron said.

]]>