North Adams junior Olivia Wright (4) opened up her 2021 season with a hat trick, scoring three goals in the Lady Devils’ 11-0 win over Zane Trace on Aug. 21. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams sophomore Kenlie Jones looks ahead and upfield in action from the Lady Devils’ win over Zane Trace on Saturday, one in which Jones scored a pair of goals. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
They aren’t playing Twister, but soccer as North Adams’ Sydney Figgins is upended by a Zane Trace opponent in the Lady Devils’ big win on Aug. 21. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The 2021 campaign opened last Saturday afternoon in a big way for Coach Morgan Hendrickson and her North Adams Lady Devils varsity soccer squad, as they played host to the Zane Trace Lady Pioneers. On a very hot, humid, and sunny afternoon, the Lady Devils scored their first goal less than five minutes into the game and never looked back, rolling past the Lady Pioneers by a final count of 11-0.
Battling the sweltering heat, the host Lady Devils wasted little time getting the only goal they actually ended up needing at the 35:16 mark of the first half, when junior Olivia Wright followed her own shot to score the game’s first goal. The tone of the game was set early as nearly all the touches came on the North Adams offensive end, making a boring day for Lady Devils’ goalkeeper Harlee Brand, who posted probably the easiest clean sheet of her career.
Twelve minutes later the Lady Devils were on the board again, this time on a score from sophomore Kenlie Jones. With 11:22 to play in the first half, a ball slipped from the grasp of the Zane Trace keeper and North Adams’ Hunter Grooms punched it home to make it 3-0. Two minutes later, senior Sydney Figgins tried a shot from about 50 yards out and got the luck of the bounce, two bounces and right over the goalie’s head for a 4-0 advantage at halftime for the home team.
The second half, could simply be described as “more of the same”, lots of heat and continued domination by the Lady Devils. At the 31:09 mark, Jones tallied her second goal of the game with a bullet into the corner of the net from about 15 yards away, then a swarm of three goals in a span of three goals in three minutes erased what little doubt there may have been about the game’s outcome.
The first of that trio of scores came at the 22:25 mark when North Adams senior Ainsley Grooms got control of the ball off a Zane Trace goal kick, maneuvered past defenders, and deposited the ball into the net to make it 6-0. One minute later, a centering pass from Hunter Grooms resulted in a second goal for Wright, and at the 19:57 mark, sophomore Madi Hesler took a ball that had bounced off the Lady Pioneer keeper and managed to poke it just over the goal line for an 8-0 North Adams lead.
The Lady Devils finished off the scoring with three more goals in the final nine minutes of action. The first of those came with 9:36 to play when Wright made it a hat trick, knocking in the rebound of a shot by teammate Morgan Shupert. With 6:10 left Shupert got her first goal of 2021, left foot into the corner of the net, and finally, an assist from Figgins resulted in a perfect header into the net by Shupert, the final blow in a convincing triumph for the Lady Devils.
“This was a great opener for us,” said Coach Hendrickson. “We love opening each year with Zane Trace, who we also played last year in the sectional tournament. We have a little smaller roster this year with just 15 girls, but they’re talented and they play together well. We were able to really use all of our players a good bit today.”
“Sometimes Harlee gets overworked but today she had it pretty easy, a combination of the work of our offense and defense. Kenlie Jones and Hunter Grooms really played well today as forwards and we also have a solid defense led by Morgan Shupert.”
The Lady Devils opened up Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Monday afternoon, facing the tough task of traveling to Eastern Brown to battle the Lady Warriors, where they dropped a 3-0 decision to even their mark at 1-1 after two outings.
