HOLYOKE — For the fifth straight season, the Greenfield High School field hockey team will play for the Western Mass. championship.
The Green Wave dispatched Smith Academy, 4-0, in the Western Mass. Division 2 semifinals under the lights at Holyoke High School’s Roberts Field on Wednesday night.
“I think we did some really good things today,” Greenfield coach Erin Thayer said. “I also think we have some things we need to be a little better at. We weren’t always possessing the ball crisply. We weren’t making crisp passes into our lanes. We were missing some of those in some spots to get our offense going.”
Third-seeded Greenfield (14-5-1) is the three-time defending Western Mass. champion and will play No. 1 Frontier on Saturday at 5 p.m. for a chance to win a fourth straight sectional title back on the turf at Holyoke High School.
Frontier beat South Hadley, 3-2, in Wednesday’s other semifinal.
The Red Hawks and Green Wave have met in the last four sectional championship games with Frontier last winning in 2015.
Madyson Kuchieski set up Lillia Kachelmeyer with 20 minutes, 3 seconds left in the first half to give the Green Wave a 1-0 lead.
Kuchieski finished with a goal and two assists.
“We really wanted to go to Western Mass.,” Kuchieski said. “I just wanted to help my team out and do everything I could to make it there. My passing lanes were there.”
Kuchieski picked up her goal just before halftime, shooting from a tough angle and bending it past Smith Academy keeper Hadley Szynal.
“I guess it was just luck, kind of,” Kuchieski said. “I saw Lill (Kachelmeyer) at the post.”
Greenfield led 2-0 at halftime and handed No. 2 Smith Academy (16-1-3) its first loss of the season.
“I didn’t feel like our offense got a chance to just take off,” Thayer said. “But we did what we had to do. Good pressure in the middle. Especially inside the circle. Defensively, we stopped balls, got rid of balls and got them out of our end.”
Racquel Provost scored with 19:19 left in the second half. Provost sent a penalty corner to Katie Haselton, who fired a shot. Kuchieski changed the direction of the shot back to Provost, who had an open goal by the post.
“We kept it in their end, which is where we want it to be,” Thayer said.
Greenfield had a 14-4 shot advantage.
Amber Taylor scored a late goal for the Green Wave, assisted by Kaylah Eggsware. Taylor joined the Wave this season after playing for Turners Falls.
“She’s been working her butt off all season,” Thayer said of Taylor. “She struggled a bit at the beginning of the season coming from a different program trying to find her way with this team. In the past two weeks, I’ve seen a nice change in her. It’s been a really nice thing to see. I think she has figured some things out.”
Eggsware moved the ball up the field on several possessions throughout the game, igniting the Wave’s offensive attack.
Eggsware went down in the first half but bounced up quickly and kept playing.
“She had a great game,” Thayer said of Eggsware.
Ainslee Flynn made four saves for the Wave, including three late during a Smith Academy flurry of shots.
Szynal made 10 saves for the Falcons.
Greenfield 4, Smith Academy 0
Greenfield | 2 | 2 | — | 4 |
Smith Acad | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
Goals: (G) Kuchieski, Provost, Taylor, Kachelmeyer
Assists: (G) Kuchieski 2, Eggsware
Shots: Greenfield 14. Smith 4.
Saves: (G) Flynn 4. (SA) Szynal 10.
Corners: Greenfield 7. Smith 2.