GREENFIELD — Friday night’s football game between Greenfield and Athol didn’t feature much offense. That wasn’t the case when the two schools’ boys soccer teams got together on Monday.
The Green Wave opened the scoring in the third minute, then tacked on two more goals while the Bears also found the back of the net before the halftime whistle blew.
The scoring continued in the second half, with the Green Wave scoring four unanswered before Athol tallied two late goals as Greenfield walked away with a 7-3 Schmid League victory.
Green Wave coach Erich Leaper said he hopes this result can be a confidence boost for his squad.
“We’re a solid team and we needed to see a result like this,” Leaper said. “We’re trying to take steps in the right direction to be a solid program and they need evidence to see we can do that. There’s teams we believe we should be beating and we have to be able to beat those teams. This was a good one to have for that.”
Heskey Samu led the offensive charge for Greenfield (2-6-1, 2-6-1), tallying a hat trick and generating numerous scoring chances in the win. After the last time the two teams met — one in which the Green Wave scored in the 75th minute to break a 0-0 tie before Athol responded one minute later to salvage a draw — Greenfield wanted to show it had the offensive firepower to find the back of the net on Monday.
“It was a good day,” Samu said. “I have good teammates around me. The last time we played them was tough. Team morale was high today and that carried us.”
A young Athol (0-6-3, 0-6-3) team is looking to continue making progress throughout the year. Head coach Nevon Smith said he was encouraged with how his team finished Monday’s contest.
“We finished strong,” Smith said. “We’re a very young team. We just need to work together. We have a big age gap but they believe in each other. It was a rough start but we finished strong. We strung along some passes and put the ball in the net. We overcame some adversity and finished strong. To be able to chip away and keep working hard is encouraging.”
Samu opened the scoring in the game, knocking a shot that deflected off Bears goalie Drake Wing and bounced into the net to give Greenfield the early advantage. Sam Bakare picked up the assist on the score.
After playing from behind the past couple games, Leaper felt his team gained confidence with the early goal.
“We’ve been giving up goals in the first few minutes of games,” Leaper said. “It feels good to be three minutes in and have a goal. It feels so much better.”
The Green Wave struck again in the 19th minute after goalie Daniel Pena-Chadee rocketed a ball upfield to Bakare, who drove up the left side and buried a shot to give Greenfield a two-goal cushion. In the 23rd minute, Green Wave Caleb Thomas blasted a shot that was saved by Wing, but Jackson Campbell was on the spot to get the rebound and fire it into the goal to make it a 3-0 contest.
The Bears struck just before the halftime whistle blew to get right back in the game. Brandon Adams sent a cross in to Nathan Parayson, who rocketed a shot just past Pena-Chadee to cut the lead to 3-1.
Greenfield scored four goals in a six-minute span in the second half to take command of the game. Samu got things rolling in the 63rd, stealing a pass, juking a pair of defenders before drilling a shot that went just below the bar and in.
Two minutes later, freshman Jack Laurie sent a ball up to Bakare, who used his speed to get a one-on-one with Wing and finished it, putting the Green Wave ahead, 5-1.
In the 67th, Laurie hit a shot that was saved by Wing. The ball deflected out into the box where Thomas pounced and buried the shot. Two minutes after that, Samu completed his hat trick, scoring off a dish from Bakare to put Greenfield up, 7-1.
Leaper was proud of how his young team was able to turn it on in the second half to take over the game.
“We’re very young,” Leaper said. “We only have one senior. We’re relying on a lot of freshmen and sophomores. We have some eighth graders we rely on. When you’re older, you can see the process. We’re trying to use this as a building for the future year.”
Athol got two goals back late. The Bears drew a corner in the 75th minute, and after the ball bounced off a number of players, Aiden Kirwan was there to rocket it into the goal to cut the lead to 7-2.
In the 80th minute, Kirwan swung a cross in to Parayson, and he put it in the back of the net to close out the scoring.
Smith said he’s hoping to see his young group keep getting better as the season carries on.
“We just want to see progress,” Smith said. “In the next couple years they’ll be that team. For now we’re building chemistry. Our keeper made some great saves today. We’re building.”