SOUTH HADLEY — Rich Marjanski tells his team that if it can get shots on net, good things will happen.
“If we score around 20 percent of our shots and take 10 shots, that’s two goals,” Marjanski said. “Those are pretty good numbers. … The girls have the green light any time to shoot. … We try to get as many shots as we can.”
His team got the message on Monday night as the South Hadley girls soccer team defeated Granby, 4-0, at South Hadley High School.
Paige Marjanski and Reese Carey each had two goals for the Tigers. Bridget Sears had 11 saves for South Hadley (4-0, Central 4-0).
Julia Gauvin had 21 saves for Granby (3-1-1, Central 3-1-1)
The Tigers outshot the Rams 27-16.
“This was a huge league game for us,” Marjanski said. “I thought the defense did a tremendous job. … They bent a little bit at times, but they didn’t break. Offensively we had a lot of shots on goal. We put four in, which is great.”
The Tigers won the possession battle in the first half. Granby pressed South Hadley’s defense early in the game, but the central defenders for South Hadley stayed composed and moved the ball into the midfield.
With 32 minutes, 10 seconds to go in the first half, Madelyn Doolittle sent a ball into Granby’s penalty box off a corner. Carey corralled the ball and sent it in past Gauvin to put the Tigers on the board.
“(South Hadley) are so fast,” Granby coach Bob Weaver said. “They are really well coached. They move the ball and put pressure on you in areas you don’t want to be under pressure. They can strike the ball from a lot of different places.”
Although South Hadley controlled the time of possession in the first half, the Rams did a good job of making things difficult for the Tigers in the middle of the field. Dana Chateauneuf worked hard to win balls away from South Hadley midfielders and Gabby Walz put her body on the line a few times in the opening half to keep balls in play.
South Hadley still found ways to break through. Carey scored her second goal with 28:26 to go in the first half off a slicing ball into the box from Jaidan Luis.
The Tigers slowly shifted their offensive game plan as the match moved into the second half to combat Granby’s defense at midfield.
Instead of forcing the offense through the middle, the team collectively shifted toward creating chances from the outside off of sharp passes and crosses.
“(That) seemed to work better,” Rich Marjanski said on the change. “In the second half we just wore them down a bit and had more open space that the kids were able to take.”
Near the end of the opening half, Granby’s Julia Frappier glided past a defender and had a clean shot on goal. Sears leaped to her left and made the difficult save to keep the Tigers ahead 2-0.
Granby’s Nora Young won the ball in a similar situation early in the second half, but Sears came up with another save to keep a clean sheet.
“She played great,” Rich Marjanski said on Sears’ performance. “She made big saves down the stretch. She has been keeping the ball in front of herself and keeping the ball out of the goal.”
Paige Marjanski scored her first goal of the match with 24:46 to go in the second half after making space for herself in Granby’s penalty box and sliding the ball past Gauvin with a low shot.
Twenty minutes later, Sydney Mercier sent a pass deep into Granby’s half of the field that was picked up by Paige Marjanski, who slid the ball into the net to give South Hadley a 4-0 lead.
South Hadley’s forwards have been playing together for a long time, and it shows. Whenever the ball found its way into the final third, the group played decisively, either sending one-touch passes to cutting wings or sending the ball back to midfielders at the top of their formation.
“I think coach just wants all of us to be one team,” Carey said. “Working together is one of the most important things he teaches us … We have known each other for so long. We play for each other.”
The Tigers lost seven seniors to graduation from last season’s sectional title-winning team. Some on the team weren’t sure how this year’s group would come together, but five games in, and five wins down, the program is starting to hit a groove.
As the season has gone on we have been able to work better together and move he ball better from the back,” Paige Marjanski said. “We have more trust in each other.”