HOLYOKE – Trevor Weiss usually makes the right play. It doesn’t often show up on the stat sheet. He grinds sometimes thanklessly in the midfield, laying balls off and covering second balls.
The Belchertown junior midfielder put himself in the right position after a long Kaden Houle throw trickled away from the South Hadley goal after a header in the Western Massachusetts Class B championship game Wednesday at the Roberts Complex.
Weiss ripped a shot across the face of goal that caromed off a Tiger leg, spun into the ground and jumped into the net in the 30th minute.
“I was just trying to put it back on frame. Kind of lucky it went in,” Weiss said. “There was nothing they could do about it. It helps us the rest of the game, but we had the problem in the regular season that we can’t put teams away so I’m glad we finished this game out.”
The No. 1 seeded Orioles scored twice in the second half to secure their fourth straight Western Massachusetts title, a 3-0 win over No. 2 South Hadley. They won Class B last year, and took home the Division 3 sectional crown in 2018 and 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 tournaments.
“It’s always a game of chances. We’ve been saying for years some of these guys need a little more dog in them, they need a little more fight,” Belchertown coach Zach Siano said. “We hate to use rah rah words like buzz and heart, but these guys certainly have it. They have that grit, they have that heart, and they certainly have that dog in ‘em and that dog got ‘em a fourth straight Western Mass championship.”
South Hadley was aiming for its first ever title with a dozen seniors that had previously only experienced first round heartbreak. The Tigers suffocated Belchertown leading scorer Jack Holt in the early going and turned the first half hour into a grind.
“We executed the way we wanted to. I don’t think we were prepared to have such few offensive chances. Our touches weren’t very good,” South Hadley coach Eric Castonguay said. “Defensively we did what we wanted to. If you’re down 1-0 and it’s getting late who cares if it’s 2-0 or 3-0?”
Adam Campbell cleared a ball off the Tigers goal line in the eighth minute after a back post shot from William Hill.
Belchertown keeper Jack Mandeville flew off his line in the 18th minute and leapt in the air to swat away a Charlie Anischik attempt for South Hadley. That was one of the senior striker’s few chances with center back Kaden Houle tracking him all game.
“I though Kaden was lock down. For someone who’s never played that position before three months ago, he’s been putting on an absolute clinic against some of the best forwards in Western Mass.,” Siano said. “We knew how incredibly dangerous Charlie was, we had a good game plan and I thought we stuck to it well.”
The 1-0 lead Weiss delivered Belchertown held until halftime. The Orioles grabbed more of the ball in the second half, and the Tigers slowly shed layers of armor to push for a tying goal by moving center back Colin Quinn up the field.
Belchertown put the ball in those cracks after halftime.
Nate Oldenburg tracked a ball down on the end line facing away and slid a pass to Elias Marques standing at the six-yard box. Marques touched it calmly in for a 2-0 lead in the 67th minute.
“It was a great ball by Nate, nothing much but just a tap in. Great overall team goal,” Marques said.
In the final five minutes, Nick Adzima stuck a dagger in when he tapped a perfect through ball to Holt between two defenders. Holt twisted the knife with an outside of the foot shot the opposite corner that made it 3-0.
“Our school record was four Western Mass. [titles] in a row. It means a lot to keep it going. Hopefully we can keep it gong next year,” Weiss said. “Our goal is states now, though.”
Belchertown is the No. 3 seed in the Division 3 state tournament. The Orioles lost to Norwell in penalty kicks in last year’s state final.
The Tigers can also turn their attention to the state tournament as the No. 1 seed in Division 4.
“The big picture is we want to win states. With the big senior group I have here, we’ll shake this off,” Castonguay said. “They play a Class A schedule. This would be the hardest test we’ve had this year. Even going into the tournament I don’t think we’ll face anyone that’s similar to a Belchertown. This is something for us to build on.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.