MCC Shuts Out Hampshire College In Final Game Before Tournament

Manchester CC 5 Hampshire College 0
MANCHESTER – Miranda Hodge (Rocky Hill) scored her team leading fifth goal of the season and assisted on another as Manchester CC (6-6-1) defeated Hampshire College 5-0 Wednesday afternoon.

Hodge assisted on Michelle Magora’s (Enfield) fourth goal of the season and Caitie Sutherland (Somers) scored four minutes later to give the Cougars a 3-0 halftime lead.

“To come out from the very first whistle, to put our mark on the game, set the tone and carry that through the first half,” said Jeremy Wilson, who was happy about finishing his first regular season with a .500 record.

Ashley Geraldi (Stafford) and Anastasia Gaudreau (East Hartford) added second half goals. Gina DiPrato (Suffield) and Jessica Arias (Manchester) contributed each with an assist. Michelle Kerr (Rockville) made a pair of saves while posting her third shutout of the season. Frances McGrath made eight saves for Hampshire (3-2). MCC outshot the visitors by a 13-2 margin.

MCC is finally healthy and looking forward to playing Massasoit CC in the Region 21 tournament. This will be the third meeting between the teams this season – they tied 3-3 in Brockton on Sept. 11 and Massasoit won the second meeting 2-1 in Manchester on October 11. The third meeting will be at a neutral site, Holyoke CC on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“I don’t think we played to our capabilities in either of the games so far,” Wilson said of the previous two meetings between the Region 21 rivals. “We did not put our best foot forward and hopefully we will be in a better place on Saturday to give them our best shot and with a little bit of luck, things will go our way.”

Holyoke CC and Springfield Tech will play the first semi-final game at 11am. The two winners meet for the championship game on Sunday at 1pm.