Red Hawks peaking as tourney approaches

SOUTH DEERFIELD — With the brackets for the Western Mass. Division 3 girls soccer tournament set to be released on Friday, you’d be hard pressed to find a team playing as well as Frontier Regional School.

The Red Hawks were at it again Tuesday night, putting together a performance that has become commonplace for the team in recent weeks. Frontier pitched a shutout for the sixth consecutive game, closing out the regular season with a 2-0 victory over Gateway Regional in a Pioneer North contest.

The win capped a 5-0-1 stretch over the Hawks’ final six games, as the team closed the regular season with an 11-5-2 overall record. After starting the year 3-3-1, the club went 8-2-1 over their final 11 contests.

“We’re clicking right now, which is nice,” Frontier coach Phil Pittelli said. “There have been some ups and downs. It’s been a progression. But the focus and the mentality has changed for the better this year. That’s been a big help. Their minds are focused on this season and they’re ready for tournament.”

On a night where the team’s four seniors — Natalie Denkiewicz, Jess Wrisley, Tori Speth and Claudia Rajballie — were honored, Frontier flipped the script on the Gators (14-2-2). Gateway captured a 1-0 victory when the teams met on Sept. 24, and the visitors hadn’t lost since Sept. 9 when they suffered their only other defeat of the fall to Mahar Regional.

“We’re going to miss them next year,” Pittelli said of his senior quartet. “They’re going to be big holes to fill. Tori has played almost every minute of every game this year, Claudia works her tail off, and Jess and Natalie can both just absolutely hit a ball. It’s special to see them play, they’re good role models for the girls coming up.”

After putting pressure on the Gateway defense throughout the first half, Frontier finally cashed in just before halftime. Off a Red Hawks corner kick, the Gators were unable to clear the ball from danger, despite two defenders getting their heads on the ball. The bounding ball eventually fell in front of Wrisley, and the senior forward timed it perfectly with a blast through traffic that found the corner of the net for a 1-0 advantage in the 39th minute.

It stayed that way until the 66th minute, when the hosts struck again for an insurance marker. After earning a free kick from about 25 yards out, Frontier executed its set piece to perfection. Denkiewicz took the free kick, powering a low line drive into the Gateway box. Alena Maes-Polan managed to get her foot on the ball, flicking a one-touch floater over the head of Gateway keeper Donna Viel (10 saves) to make it a 2-0 advantage.

“Our offense is making some nice runs, we’ve been getting open shots instead of just shots,” lauded Pittelli.

That would be plenty for the Red Hawks, which received another solid effort between the pipes from keeper Siomara Green (seven saves). The freshman came out on several breakaway attempts to cut down angles, and used the help of defender Megan Dejnak on one Gateway attempt where she thwarted a scoring chance from sniper Erin Harris to keep the Gators off the board.

The defense of Kaitlyn Mackin, Grace O’Leary, Anna Petrin and Dejnak did a nice job marking Harris, Gateway’s high-scoring forward.

Pittelli said his team’s organized style, which helped them dominate possession in Tuesday’s win, will pay dividends as the program looks to make a postseason run.

“I think we play a better style than a lot of teams in the regular season which I think prepares us better for the postseason,” he said. “The kick and run style is only going to take you so far. We’re going to find teams that play more like us, and I think we do it better than most.”

The team’s competitive schedule this fall will also hopefully key a run in the Division 3 tourney. Frontier last reached the semifinals of a sectional tournament in 2010.

“I think this year’s group has a strong mindset and that’s hopefully going to carry us,” said Pittelli. “We’ve played Division 1 schools and I think we can play with anyone, which hopefully that mentality is going to get us over that hump. It’s a pretty open field. I think we can beat anybody on any given day and same goes for a lot of the teams in the field.”

Frontier 2, Gateway 0

Goals: (F) Maes-Polan, Wrisley.

Assists: (F) Denkiewicz.

Saves: (G) Viel 10. (F) Green 7.