HCC women's soccer team continues march up national poll

Sept. 24, 2012


Holyoke Community College forward Tai Lopez of Springfield makes a play on a ball in the box in the Lady Cougars' 1-0 win over Springfield Technical Community College. Reminder Publications photo by Chris Maza

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

HOLYOKE – The Sept. 19 rivalry game against Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) may not have gone exactly according to plan, but Holyoke Community College (HCC) women's soccer coach Robert Galazka will take it.

HCC, currently ranked sixth in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) weekly national poll, just got past STCC 1-0 after scoring a combined 23 goals in its previous two contests.

While Galazka said the score was much closer than he would have hoped, there were things about the way his team played that he was pleased with.

"It's a good win because STCC is the rival," he said. "The score was close, but I don't think there was ever a time where we felt we were going to lose. It seemed like it was a matter of time, like when and how are we going to get this goal instead of wondering if we would get the goal."

The goal finally came in the second half off the foot of Chicopee's Brittany McCarthy, a sophomore forward who Galazka identified as one of his team's most obvious contributors.

Prior to that, while the Lady Cougars dominated the play and took myriad shots, few were quality scoring opportunities. The best chance prior to the goal came in the first half when Taylor Kachinski headed a cross from Jenn Perry off the post.

"We need to do a better job of finishing when we've got opportunities," Galazka said. "NJCAA soccer is very challenging because the talent really covers the whole spectrum from extremely talented to areas where there's not much soccer, so those opportunities that might have been there against a lower-level team might not be there when we start playing higher-ranked opponents."

HCC, who carried an 8-1-1 record into its Sept. 22 match against Bristol Community College, has seen a little bit of all of that spectrum, winning games by one goal or by as many as 16 goals as it did in a school-record-setting performance against on Sept. 12 at Manchester Community College.

In that game, freshman forward Tai Lopez of Springfield netted five goals, which tied a school record set by Julie Peltier in 1990. She also tied Peltier's record of points in a game with 11 (five goals, one assist).

McCarthy also found the back of the net four times. Malynda Riopelle of Springfield made three saves in net for her fourth shutout of the season.

Westfield's Leigh Strycharz netted two goals and registered an assist while Laura Masciotra of Agawam and Perry, a West Springfield native, both scored a goal and assisted two others.

Regardless of the competition, Galazka said overall he has been pleased with his team's ability to control the play and continue attacking and controlling the midfield to limit scoring opportunities against them.

Heading into the game against Bristol, HCC had allowed two goals in a game only twice – once in the season opener against Herkimer Community College, a 2-2 tie, and again in a 2-0 loss to Region 21 power Bunker Hill Community College on Sept. 1. In the next six games after that loss, the Lady Cougars out-scored their opponents 33-1.

However, Galazka said he felt the team needed to continue improving if they wanted to be able to do that against the better opponents they might face down the stretch.

The team's early success, he said, comes partly from having a large group of experienced players that returned after last year's 14-4 team that made it to the Region 21 championship game.

"We have a strong group of nine returners from last year's team," Galazka said.

In addition to McCarthy, Galazka pointed to sophomores Masciotra and Regan Teixeira, the team's center midfielder and center back, respectively, as visible leaders on the field, calling them "two of our stronger players all season."

Galazka called the existence of veteran players on a team that can experience significant turn-over year after year because of the nature of the school "critical" to their success.

"Your second-year players are almost like seniors for a high school or a four-year college program because they've been part of it for a year," he said. "You have freshmen coming in and they have no idea what to expect. So when you have second-year players that show the freshmen the ropes, it's very important."

While Galazka has valued his experienced players, the contributions of his freshmen are not lost on him. The Lady Cougars followed up their record-setting win with a 7-0 romp over Massasoit Community College on Sept. 18 in which the freshmen played a major role. Masciotra scored two goals, but the freshmen poured it on as Springfield's Alysa Rosario and Tyler Lendon as well as Feeding Hills' Kara Peters all netted goals.

"One of our really good freshman is Kara Peters," he said. "She's done a really nice job for us in the midfield as a first-year player."

Galazka added that the team has significant depth that could play a factor in the team's fortunes as the season continues.

"I was just talking with my coaches about the fact that there are girls on our bench who are good quality players and could be getting more playing time than they're getting, but sometimes they're playing behind someone who is playing really, really well," he said. "Some players aren't not getting playing time because they don't deserve it, it's just because the person ahead of them is doing such a great job," he said.

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