BELCHERTOWN – Expectations fell on the Belchertown boys soccer team’s Class of 2022 early. Their Cold Spring Soccer Club teams dominated the opposition. Several members won a U.S. Club Soccer National Championship in 2017 with Western United Pioneers FC two years before they reached high school.
“We’ve been around our entire childhood playing soccer together, and we’ve always been able to beat teams pretty comfortably,” senior Shay O’Neil said. “So it’s always been like ‘oh this grade is going to be the savior grade. It’s going to win us a championship.’”
They did in 2019 and have a shot at an unprecedented second against Norwell at 11 a.m. Saturday in Medway. Belchertown is the No. 1 seed and hasn’t allowed a goal in the Division 3 state tournament, outscoring opponents 16-0.
“It’s pretty amazing to see all of us like playing our last year together and just bring it all together for one more year and just playing our hearts out,” senior Hunter LePage said. “You don’t get another chance like this.”
Orioles coach Zach Siano heard the hype when the Orioles were still in their shells. He initially dismissed it as hearsay around town. Everyone thinks their kid is going to be the one.
Then he saw them play.
“I was like ‘oh, wow, these kids are pretty good,’” Siano said.
He pulled four freshman up to the varsity roster on his first year as the varsity head coach – O’Neill, Joey Biaco, Hunter LePage and Drew Pope – and added Grayson Marques to the playoff roster. They were part of the Orioles first Western Massachusetts championship team in three years – a drought in Belchertown.
The class hasn’t stopped winning since. They added a second sectional championship as sophomores in 2019 and won the program’s second state title that season.
“I didn’t know we were going win any trophies,” O’Neill said. “I assumed so because we had a high quality, but this is just outlandish to succeed like we have.”
It took a global pandemic to stop the run. The Orioles organized short field games to keep morale up and play with each other during the quarantine period. Once high school sports were approved, no championships were awarded, as the state played fall sports in regional pods.
“It was definitely frustrating. We all wanted to come back and compete for another Western Mass title, another state title,” Marques said. “It was underwhelming not being able to compete for those things.”
That left one shot as seniors: this season. They were a group 12-strong bolstered by an old friend who, for a time, was an old foe. Dominic Mancuso played with O’Neill and LePage on the Pioneers team that claimed a national title but was from Ludlow and played his first two seasons for the Lions. He wanted to leave after his freshman year, but 2019 was his brother Emilio Mancuso was a senior goalie, and he made varsity with him. Dominic Mancuso started his transfer process after the soccer season.
“This was my first option because I already knew most of these kids and I knew this was going to be a great team,” he said.
Some players older than him and younger than him gave him grief for playing for Ludlow, which Belchertown plays at least once a year, but those in his class welcomed him with open arms.
“We’ve all known him for years, and bringing him in here was a key role for our team. He’s helped us out a lot,” LePage said. “We all welcomed him in here. We love the kid.”
He possesses the ball comfortably in the midfield and helps link the Orioles back line with their forwards.
“He is very composed,” O’Neill said.
It’s not an easy style to play. It takes skill, communication and trust. Players work together knowing where to pass and where to fill during runs and on defense.
“This team’s like no other like, we play so good together, especially towards the end of the year,” Mancuso said. “I still think like, there’s like a few teams that can compete with us when we’re at our best.”
A win Saturday would cement them as the most dominant champions in school history and put them in rarified air across the state. Siano likes to tell his teams they’re spokes on a wheel and will be replaced with incoming classes when they get too big for their britches. This group of seniors made him reconsider that.
“This might be the first time where I’ve really got to sit back and assess things,” Siano said. “I don’t know how the wheel’s gonna turn without these guys going forward.”