GREENFIELD — Elderina Cecunjanin broke her leg in the spring, but you’d never know that after watching her play on Thursday in Greenfield’s season opener against Franklin Tech.
The Greenfield freshman forward got going in the 10th minute, capitalizing off a give-and-go from Indie Merrill to give the Green Wave the lead. Cecunjanin put one more in the net in the first half before tallying two more times in the final 40 minutes of action to lead Greenfield to a 7-0 Bi-County League victory.
“It’s my first game back from injury so it’s exciting being back out here,” Cecunjanin said. “I gained a lot of confidence and have been working on my footwork.”
Azemina Cecunjanin scored the second goal for the Green Wave, stealing the ball and scoring on a breakaway to put Greenfield ahead 2-0 in the 27th minute. Young sister Elderina scored her second of the game three minutes later, making a deke in the box and lofting a shot over the head of Eagles goalie Kylee Gamache to make it a 3-0 game.
Azemina Cecunjanin found Merrill in front of the goal in the 38th minute, and Merrill finished the shot into the net, putting the Green Wave up 4-0 at the half.
Elderina Cecunjanin scored two goals in a two-minute span in the second half. The first came in the 53rd minute off a dish from Jenny Petcu, and the second was off a rebound in front in the 54th minute to make it a 6-0 game.
Merrill put home a cross from Azemina Cecunjanin in the 73rd minute to close out the scoring.
“They looked good out there,” Greenfield coach Ben Johnson said of his squad. “The chemistry is coming together. We still have to see what we have. With only two subs, girls are playing different positions. They communicate well and work well as a team.”
While the score was lopsided, there was plenty of encouraging signs for the Eagles. Anne Kolodziej had multiple opportunities out front for Tech, but Green Wave keeper Makayla Valente came up with nine big saves to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard.
Gamache made four saves in the loss. Franklin Tech coach Jason Butynski said despite a similar scoreline to last year’s defeats to Greenfield, Thursday’s performance was a step in the right direction.
“Unfortunately it’s the same result but it was a different game,” Butynski said. “We had chances. They have a great team and a couple of really good players who did some nice things for them. I thought we controlled some of the play and that wasn’t something we did last year. We took it to them in spurts. I am so encouraged and proud of the girls for what they did this game. Moving forward, we did a lot of positives today.”
Mt. Greylock 5, Mahar 0 — The Mounties jumped on the Senators early, tallying four goals in the first half to pull away with a 5-0 Grieve League win over Mahar in Orange on Thursday.
Jane Skavlem (2), Lily McDermott, Lucy Igoe and Rowan Apotsos were the Greylock goal-scorers. Alivia Patch made 10 saves in the loss.
Frontier 3, Holyoke 2 — Tied 1-1 at the half, the Redhawks were able to outscore the Purple Knights 2-1 in the final 40 minutes to come away with a 3-2 victory in South Deerfield on Thursday.
Hannah Mackin, Kylie Laford and Madelyn Fagan were the Frontier goal scorers, with Sydney Tor and Maggie McDermot-Whtie picking up assists. Cady Wells-Robinson made seven saves in the win.
Tryana Ayala and Yasani Thompson found the back of the net for Holyoke, with Thompson recording an assist. Jayvah Stuckey made five saves in the loss.