Playoff soccer gets underway on Friday, with three local teams in the mix.
The seventh-seeded Mahar girls team will host No. 10 Hoosac Valley in the first round of the Division 3 tournament.
“Very physical and athletic,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said of Hoosac. “Played really well down the stretch so we will have our hands full.”
The Senators (14-4) sputtered a bit toward the end of the season with losses to Easthampton and Athol.
“If we don’t lose to Athol and Easthampton, we are up in the four or five seed range,” Softic said. “We got what we deserved.”
Hoosac Valley’s (7-7-3) leading scorer is Claudia Bresett. Mahar will use Natalie Belloli to shadow Hoosac’s top facilitator, either Bresett or Shaleigh Levesque.
Delaney Parker scored 37 goals with 10 assists this season for Mahar.
The Athol girls (9-9) received the 13th seed in Division 3 and will travel to the Berkshires to play No. 4 Monument Mountain (12-4-1).
“The girls are upbeat,” Athol coach Tim Cleveland said. “They are confident they can come out on top.”
The Red Raiders got into the playoffs with a home win over Mahar in their last regular season game.
Grace Dufour, a leading scorer for the Red Raiders, helped her team get into the playoffs with her defense. Dufour will play a offensive role for Athol to start but could switch to defense if the Red Raiders get a lead.
The No. 13 Mahar (10-5-3) boys’ team will play No. 4 Easthampton (15-2-1) on the road at Williston-Northampton School tonight at 7.
James Temple and Riley Drew lead Mahar’s offense while Simon Powell’s defense has helped along an ever-changing goalie situation all season for the Senators.
