Lenox girls reach state semis before bowing to Sutton

WESTFIELD – Head Coach Matt Cote knew at some point, without Berkshire County Co-MVP Jen Delasco, his girls’ “Cinderella story” was going to end.

Last Wednesday (Nov. 14) at Westfield State, for a chance to play in the state final, the fairytale season ended with a 2-0 loss to Sutton.

Despite being out-shot 16-2 in the game by the Suzies (not making that name up – the boys are called the Sammies), Cote couldn’t have been more proud of the way his team played without their star offensive player.

“There is nothing about the result of this game that diminishes how I feel about these kids, and the season,” Cote said. “Everyone knew going into this game that if we lost we still accomplished well more than we set out to accomplish – in a way just being here was gravy.”

While Cote’s team will enjoy their gravy and their Western Massachusetts championship this holiday season, their future looks even more bright with eighth grader Tova Brown and ninth grade sensation Sandra Arace returning to the offense for the next three seasons.

The young stars almost broke through the Suzies’ defensive backfield in the second half, with Arace using her incredible speed to beat defenders down the sideline to send a few beautiful crosses into the middle of the box; unfortunately Brown couldn’t finish against a Sutton team clogging the middle.

“Our only scoring chances came off those small crosses,” Cote said. “[They had] very strong defenders – they play a 3-5-2, and when you have strong defenders you have the luxury to bump up the midfielders – and we recognized that early on – they just didn’t make any mistakes.”

Sutton knocked on the door early and often in the first half against Lenox, and that door opened when Sutton’s Rachel Fox appeared to knock over Lenox’s goalkeeper Kathy Prescott, forcing the ball to roll into the net with 6:08 left in the first half – a call that could have gone Lenox’s way.

“Thought the first goal could have been called keeper possession,” Cote said. “[The official] didn’t see it that way.”

The Sutton goal swung the momentum in favor of the Suzies until there were 22 minutes left in the second half, when Prescott made the save of the year.

Prescott skied up to tip a potential game-clinching goal that ricocheted off the crossbar to preserve the one-goal deficit.

For the next five minutes, the Millionaires attacked the Suzies’ zone with Arace beating her defender to the corner for several crosses in front of the net.

“We had a stretch where we started to have the momentum in our favor,” Cote said. “It starts with the keeper making a great save and now everyone picks up their energy again.”

Lenox, however, couldn’t find the right combination to tie the game.

“We had a couple of chances with the ball sliding across – (Brown) almost got there two different times – you poke one of those in and it’s a different game,” Cote said.

With Lenox attacking, the midfield was vulnerable for a counter attack, which is what the Suzies did, scoring on a long run as Cierra Dubinsky added the clincher with 15:09 left in the game.

“Some of these younger kids are going to learn a lot after this season,” Cote said. “Kate Mitts – on the outside – has come a long way all season, as has Tova Brown.”

Cote emphasized after the game his girls gave the Suzies all they could handle for 80 minutes – leaving it all on the field.

“You think of the expression ‘leave it all on the field,’ that’s what you saw from my team today,” Cote said. “They left their heart and emotion out there.”

Posted by Tim Davis on November 20, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry