NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton boys lacrosse team redeemed itself against Mount Greylock, taking the win, 10-4, and extending its winning streak to two Friday afternoon.
Last season, the Blue Devils (3-4) underestimated the Division 3 Mounties (2-2) and fell, 10-3, in Williamstown. The loss had an effect on how Northampton approached Friday’s contest.
“We went out there last year and we were like 9-2, and they blew our doors off,” Hamp coach Matt Striebel said. “It was 0-0 at the end of the first and then it was 7-1 at halftime, and they ended up winning pretty close to this (score). In our minds we were using that sort of as motivation, a reminder that whether you’re going out there or coming out here it’s a long drive and you want to get on them early.”
Tyler Allcroft, who led Northampton with five goals, said the team was looking forward to squaring off against the Mounties again.
“(We played) really well, we started moving on offense really quickly, banging it around,” Allcroft said. “We got a lot of open looks from just moving the ball and defense played really well.”
Jameson Miller (assist) had three goals, while Henry Attias (two assists) added two goals. Henry Higgins had a team-high three assists, and Evan Moulton chipped in two assists.
Northampton’s first-half performance anchored its victory as it entered the final 30 minutes with a 6-0 lead. Allcroft registered half of those goals, including the final tally before the second half. Miller, Higgins and Attias registered the other three goals.
“(Allcroft) has been outstanding. He has just been grinding, he’s put in so much work in the offseason, just getting his body stronger and preparing for this season,” Striebel said. “I told him at the beginning, I was like ‘look, we’re going to have to rely on you a lot, you’re going to have to assume a lot of the burden for initiating stuff’ and he did an awesome job today; as he has all season.”
Attias made it 7-0 with just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter when he found himself all alone at the center of the zone. Higgins met him with a hard pass as Attias ripped a high shot past Mounties goaltender David Falk.
Just over two minutes later, Allcroft battled around the right side of the net through two defenders to whip a bouncer past Falk. Mac Waynick answered for Mount Greylock with a bouncer that beat Ryan Heng left side to end the shutout.
“I thought we did really well defensively for the first three quarters. I thought we lost a little bit of our mental edge at the end,” Striebel said. “I’m a little disappointed that we (allowed) four (goals), that’s part of the process of learning how to win is how to execute all the way through.”
Michael Wellspeak doubled the Mounties score with a turnaround shot that beat Heng left side to close the deficit to 8-2 in the fourth. Allcroft answered with a low shot from the right that squeezed past Falk despite his close positioning to the post.
Mount Greylock’s Taylor Cummings made it 9-3 when he sent a mid-air shot that beat Heng right side. Moulton found Miller, who ripped a shot top-left shelf to regain the seven-goal lead.
Cummings scored his second with 42 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.
Heng finished with 12 saves, including a fourth-quarter stop where he went one-on-one with Nick Belouin, who tried to scoop a low shot but Heng snatched it. Falk turned aside 15.
“Hollywood Heng is the best, a really, really talented goalie,” Striebel said. “Our defense is designed to give up certain shots and we know that those are shots that he’s going to save. I thought he was really good in the clearing game for us today which is not always his strong suit, but he did an awesome job with it today.”
Back-to-back 10-goal games for the Blue Devils has Striebel focusing on how to continue this offensive power and extend the winning streak.
“In the games that we’ve loss we’ve either come out flat or we’ve gotten a lead and then we’ve given it up,” Striebel said. “It’s just continually reminding ourselves that we have to stay engaged, it’s about the next play. You can’t think about mistakes, you can’t think about success, it’s just got to be a continual sort of movement forward and I thought we did a better job of that today.”