The top-seeded Granby girls soccer team got their championship defense off to a good start with an 8-0 victory over Pathfinder, Monday in the Western Massachusetts Division 4 quarterfinals in Granby.
“Our execution was off,” Granby coach Bob Weaver said. “You can tell we were off for a week.”
Granby, which has won three straight sectional titles across two divisions, led 3-0 at halftime.
Trystin Burger powered the offense with two goals and two assists. Senior defender Madison Sexton scored her first career goal and added an assist.
Mora Young scored four times, while Gabby Walz (goal), Ella Laliberte, Dana Chateauneuf and Sienna Hill each had one assist.
Goalie Julia Gauvin played into second half before giving way to Justice Delaney. They each made one save.
Granby (13-5-1) will face No. 4 Gateway Regional (13-2-2) at Holyoke High School at 7 p.m., Wednesday in the semifinals.
Gateway Regional 5, Hampden Charter 0— Peyton Bucko delivered a goal and two assists, as the Gators returned to the Division 4 semifinals with a dominant win in Huntington.
Bucko scored in the 30th minute, burying a shot from 35 yards out into the upper-left corner from the right side of the field.
“Unbelievable bomb,” Gateway coach Steve Estelle said.
That strike put the No. 4 Gators (13-2-2) up 2-0 in the 30th minute.
Ava Auclair opened the scoring in the seventh minute from Becca Hyjek.
She tallied another one with four minutes left after finishing a ball following a Bucko corner.
Bucko’s other assist also came on a corner, and Angela Wright scored it.
Hyjek scored her second goal after a give-and-go with Erin Sullivan, who picked up the assist.
Becca Herman didn’t need to make any saves for the Gators, but snuffed out a cross.
Gateway will face top-seed Granby at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Holyoke High School.
“We know a lot about Granby,” Estelle said. “They’re a great team.”
Easthampton 3, Sabis 0 — The fourth-seeded Eagles ended their regular season with a 1-0 win over Sabis on Oct. 30, and advanced to the Division 3 semifinals with a win over the No. 12 Bulldogs on Monday.
“We had our full squad and we were a little more rested,” Easthampton coach Mike Soucy said of the difference between the two games. “We worked on some things that we didn’t do too well against Sabis the first time.”
Easthampton led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a goal by Chris Williams and an assist from Henry Ferland 20 minutes into the game.
Marcus Tenesaca added an unassisted goal 15 minutes after halftime. Tenesaca was playing in only his second game of the season after returning from an injury.
An own goal made it 3-0 with two minutes left.
Drew Caires made two saves for the shutout.
The Eagles (17-2-1) will play No. 9 Frontier Regional (10-7-2) in the semifinals, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Chicopee Comp.
Westfield 3, Amherst Regional 2 — The ninth-seeded Hurricanes gave the No. 1 Bombers all they could handle in the Division 2 quarterfinal round, but Westfield moved on with the 25-20, 13-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-7 win.
“I was really proud of them,” Amherst coach Kacey Schmitt said. “They never made it easy for Westfield.”
Westfield (16-3) will play No. 4 Central (20-1) in the semifinals, Thursday at Chicopee Comp.
Amherst finished 10-10.
“This season was a real growing season for this team,” Schmitt said. “When we played Westfield the first match of the season they swept us, really killed us. To bookend and play them the way we played them today was really gratifying so see how much they improved.”
Nicole Lambert had six aces, six kills and 15 digs for the Hurricanes. Jen Hodgkins had a team-high 28 digs along with five aces.
Setter Amelia Beigel finished with 43 assists, 17 digs and seven kills. Tricia Sittauer chipped in with nine kill and eight digs.
Olivia Hogans had a team-high 14 kills.
It was the final match for seniors Amanda Crowe-Chandler (seven digs), Hodgkins, Yacine Norris-Fall and Penelope Hosley.
Lee 3, South Hadley 0 — The seventh-seeded Tigers played the No. 2 Wildcats close in the first set, but Lee held and swept the Division 3 quarterfinal 25-20, 25-6, 25-16 in Berkshire County.
“Between just some really rough hitting errors, some bad serves and some attacks that were way out, I think we gave them eight points and lost by five,” South Hadley coach Corey Koske of the first set. “That’s what I told my girls, you play nose-up and you have a chance at going out and taking the game.”
South Hadley trailed 4-3 in the second set when the Wildcats pulled away behind a 13-0 run.
“It’s tough,” Koske said. “Sometimes it’s a helpless feeling as a coach. You can call as many timeouts in the world, but it takes one good play to spark your team to get out of that funk. Sometimes it happens quicker than others. We talked about not letting the other team make runs, but I think the nerves got to them after a little bit and it showed.”
Lee will play at No. 3 Mount Greylock in the semifinals, Wednesday.
South Hadley finished 15-8.
Seniors Brooke Conner, Aislinn Ford (three kills), Hannah Gebhardt, Mia Kelly, Laney Kleszczynski (11 digs), Maddi Mathers, Kayla Roy (three digs, five assists) and Brooke Zatowski (10 digs) played their final game for the Tigers.
Kayla Simon added four kills.
Geoff Smith of the Berkshire Eagle contributed to this report.