After a 3-2 win at Eastern Brown, North Adams coach Dave D’Avignon praised the work of his defense, including sophomore Mary Sonner.

Hupp goal at :46 is game-winner – 

Story and photo by Mark Carpenter – 

With only seven games on the Southern Hills Athletic Conference soccer schedule, there is little room for error in competing for a conference title. For Coach Dave D”Avignon and his North Adams Lady Devils, their quest for the SHAC title almost took a big blow on Aug. 23 when they traveled to Eastern Brown to face the Lady Warriors, a team that won a sectional title last season and is certainly no pushover.
For 75 minutes and 46 seconds, things looked dire for the North Adams girls as they were forced to rally from a second half deficit and thanks to a game-tying goal by Karissa Buttelwerth and then a game-winner from Lakyn Hupp to escape with a thrilling 3-2 victory.
“This may have been the most exciting finish in our program’s history,” said Coach D’Avignon. “The fans got their money’s worth tonight.”
The only goal of the game’s first half came from Hupp, who took a pass from Brooklyn Wylie and scored at the 4:58 mark.
The scoreboard switched within the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Lady Warriors got two goals within two minutes of each other, the first by Morgan Reynolds at 32:19 and the second by Cassidy Staggs at 30:37 and the home team held a 2-1 advantage.
That lead held up until just 4:14 remained in the game. Again with a Wylie assist, the freshman Buttelwerth banged one home to tie it up. Shortly after the tying goal, North Adams keeper Madee Shipley made an acrobatic, game-saving goal in the face of pressure to preserve the temporary deadlock.
With the clock winding down to under a minute, North Adams’ Taylor Hesler gained control of the ball in the center channel and made a perfect pass to Hupp on the left and the Lady Devils’ bench went wild when Hupp shot low and beat the Eastern keeper for what turned out to be the difference in a 3-2 North Adams triumph.
“When we fell behind, the girls never gave up,” said D’Avignon. “The entire team re-doubled their efforts against a very good Eastern team and we pulled out the win. Our back line of Mary Sonner, Morgan Waits, Laney Hesler, Jordan Yoder, and Alyssa Mays were our unsung heroes tonight, adapting to the shorter field and keeping the long-pass based counter attacks at bay.”
“Lakyn came through with an amazing shot for the game winner and Madee saved the day by coming up with that save on a point-blank shot.”
To make it a clean sweep for North Adams, the Devils’ boys squad also left Eastern Brown with a “W”, blanking the Warriors 2-0.