LEOMINSTER — The Longmeadow girls soccer program has never played in a state championship game.
That will change this weekend.
That’s because the second-seeded Lancers punched the program’s first-ever state final ticket thanks to a 4-2 win over No. 11 King Philip in the MIAA Division II semifinal round on Monday night at Doyle Field.
Longmeadow (17-2-4) will play top-seeded Duxbury for the Div. II title this weekend, likely back at Doyle Field. Day and time are still to be determined.
“We’re just taking one game at a time, and that’s how we’ve approached this whole entire season,” said Longmeadow head coach Gina Pantuosco. “And it’s just each round gets a little more sweet. We’re incredibly proud. We’ve worked really hard and we told our seniors going into playoffs, we said, ‘win your last game.’ And now we’re at our last game. So they got us there.”
Longmeadow won WMass titles in 2004 and this year, but had never gotten past the semifinal round before. In 2004, the Lancers lost to Nashoba in the state semis, but found more success with this team on Monday night.
Emersynn Cage scored two goals for Longmeadow, including a huge insurance tally with 19:14 remaining in regulation that made it a 4-2 lead. Cage ran onto a long pass from Rhaya Manning and beat a charging King Philip goalkeeper to the ball. She poked it past everyone and calmly finished into the open net to put things out of reach.
“I just did what I needed to get it in the back of the goal, so I just didn’t stop at all,” she said.
King Philip actually took a quick lead in Monday’s semifinal, as Ella McDonald took a feed from Claire Astorino and bodied off a defender before burying a shot just 8:24 into the first half for a 1-0 advantage.
But the resilient Lancers lived up to that billing, and Cage brought her team level midway through the opening half. A corner kick from Cameron Greenman was volleyed out of the air by Cage and into the back of the net with 20:13 to play to make it 1-1.
“Our girls have shown so much resilience when they get scored on,” said Pantuosco. “The bounce back has been tremendous. Our [quarterfinal] game that we played against Marblehead just before this, there was a penalty shot called and then our center back, 32 seconds later, went down the field and came back and got the equalizer.
“So you know, I have almost a small sense of calm because I know the kind of kids they are. They’ve got grit. We said, you’re gonna make mistakes, we’re gonna get scored on, you’re gonna have missed tackles. It’s part of the game, and they don’t put their heads down and they keep fighting, and I’m so proud of them.”
Another set piece led Longmeadow to the go-ahead tally. Cage struck a free kick from 20 yards out, though KP goalkeeper Lauren Obara managed to get a hand on the shot. The ball ricocheted off the crossbar and down into a pack of players, though Longmeadow’s Riley Greenman eventually gained possession and poked it home for a 2-1 cushion with 11:13 to play in the opening stanza.
“We felt very composed and confident when it comes to the corner kicks with finishing them,” said Riley Greenman.
That momentum continued for the Western Mass. Class A champs, and Gracie DiStefano made it a 3-1 game with just 2:38 to play before intermission when she finished off another set piece play that began with a corner kick. It was another rebounded ball that came off the crossbar and out, and the Lancers midfielder beat two defenders to the spot and finished for the two-goal lead.
“Our assistant [coach], Sarah Gallagher, always says, ‘if we get corners, we’re lethal,’” said Pantuosco.
King Philip, which reached the Division I quarterfinal round last year before moving down to D-II this fall, didn’t go away. The Warriors (10-7-5), which beat Northampton in the quarterfinal round to earn a spot in Monday’s semifinal, pulled back within a goal off a corner kick of their own with 25:53 remaining. This time it was an unbelievable individual effort from Ava Quintin, who took the kick and scored on a strike to the far post, upper 90 that made it 3-2.
The Warriors snatched momentum and looked dangerous in their attack while looking for the equalizer, but Longmeadow’s defense, keyed by Manning and goalkeeper Ava Nuzzo, held them off the board the rest of the way. Cage’s insurance marker with 19:14 to go was just what the doctor ordered in seeing out the game.
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