HS Roundup: Frontier golf wins tiebreaker over Pioneer (PHOTOS)

Frontier’s Ryan Cetto takes his approach shot into the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Redhawks’ win over Pioneer on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield.

Frontier’s Ryan Cetto takes his approach shot into the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Redhawks’ win over Pioneer on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield. STAFF PHOTO/GARRETT COTE

Pioneer’s Brayden Thayer chips onto the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Panthers’ loss to Frontier on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield.

Pioneer’s Brayden Thayer chips onto the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Panthers’ loss to Frontier on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield. STAFF PHOTO/GARRETT COTE

Frontier’s Cam Skiffington sinks a par putt from off the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Redhawks’ win over Pioneer on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield.

Frontier’s Cam Skiffington sinks a par putt from off the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Redhawks’ win over Pioneer on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield. STAFF PHOTO/GARRETT COTE

Pioneer’s Ben Werner chips onto the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Panthers’ win loss to Frontier on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield.

Pioneer’s Ben Werner chips onto the ninth green at Northfield Golf Course during the Panthers’ win loss to Frontier on Tuesday afternoon in Northfield. STAFF PHOTO/GARRETT COTE

Staff Reports

Published: 10-08-2024 9:34 PM

It was as close as it could get between the Pioneer and Frontier golf teams at Northfield Golf Course Tuesday.

Tallying the top four scores, the Panthers and the Redhawks both finished with 171 points. Frontier’s Brady Wood broke the tiebreaker with a 46, allowing the Redhawks to earn the victory and not only spoil Pioneer’s senior night – but its 14-match win streak at home.

Frontier head coach Dave Blanchette urged his players all season — whether they play in the No. 1 spot or No. 8 spot — to be engaged in the match no matter what, because their scores could possibly be used in a tiebreak situation.

Well, that situation presented itself on Tuesday, and Wood, a seventh grader, came through for the Redhawks in a big way.

“The difference today was a seventh grader, who started double bogey, triple bogey,” Blanchette said. “He was 5-over through two holes, and then played 5-over the last seven. It came down to his score, and he turned his round around and really helped us out in a big way. I knew it was going to be close, and [Pioneer] hasn’t lost at home in two years.”

Cam Skiffington (40), Porter Hall (41), Jacob Cornelison (45) and Ryan Cetto (45) scored for Frontier in the win. Pioneer’s Brayden Thayer was the match medalist with a 37 while Ethan Mauthe (42), Ben Werner (45) and Cam Curtis (47) also scored for the Panthers.

Each golfer who scored for Pioneer on Tuesday is a senior, and the four of them — the only four seniors on the team — were celebrated following the match.

Panthers head coach River Kuhn took over when this senior class were all freshmen. It’s a special group to him, and they’ve all meant a lot to the growth of Pioneer’s program.

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“I knew this was a special group the moment I got here, and I wanted to do everything I could for them,” Kuhn said. “This senior group is always gonna be the most special group to me. They’ve helped me a lot and they’ve made me a better coach. Seeing their growth has been amazing, and every one of them is on a completely higher level — in every facet — than they were when I first got here.”

Coming in to Tuesday, Frontier had lost three of its last four matches. The Redhawks were dealing with illnesses so their lineup had been inconsistent over the past couple of weeks.

So to get back in the win column and do it in dramatic fashion is a big momentum booster moving forward, especially with the Western Mass. tournament looming large.

“This is good for us, because we had a tough week last week and had some close losses,” Blanchette said. “Today we had pretty much our whole team back after some illnesses hurt us last week, and the good thing is the kids know if one guy has a bad day, everybody else can play better and you can still pull it out. That’s what happened today.”

Frontier wraps up its regular season at 12-6 and will turn its attention to the Division 2 Western Mass. tournament at Taconic Golf Club slated for next Tuesday.

Pioneer (9-3) has one more regular season match, and that’s Wednesday against Franklin Tech at Thomas Memorial Golf Club.

Hampshire 162, Mohawk Trail 188 – The Raiders improved to 18-2 on Tuesday afternoon at Greenfield Country Club, led by 38s from Brayden Fennessy and Cole Boissonneault, a 41 from Ashton Lashway and 45s from Riley and Leo Florik.

Minnechaug 149, Northampton 160 – Reilly Fowles led the Blue Devils with a 36, followed by Jack Carpenter (40), Jamie Fowler (41), Reed O’Connor (43) and Brett Baranowski (43).

South Hadley 166, Smith Voc 184 – Caiden Drohan and Matt Blaser led the Tigers with 40s, while Ryan MacGregor shot a 42 and Ryley McMahon shot a 44.

Boys cross country

Amherst 15, Westfield 50; Amherst 15, Minnechaug 50 – The ‘Canes took the top eight spots at Stanley Park on Tuesday – Calvin Miller (first, 16:54), Nico Lisle (second, 18:09), Sam Woodruff (third, 18:10), Alden Pope (fourth, 18:15), Myles Redington (fifth, 18:17), Peter Nedeau (sixth, 18:19), Ian Burns (seventh, 18:24) and Holden Castenson (eighth, 18:26).

Longmeadow 15, Belchertown 50 – Belchertown’s top-five runners were Noah Les (13th, 18:42), Miles McNamara (15th, 18:49), Emmett Howard (16th,18:52), Cian Lindsay (20th, 19:19) and Collin Mullen (27th, 20:20).

Granby 24, Easthampton 33 – Nathan Hutchinson picked up a victory for the Rams in 16:35, with teammate Trevor Sullivan (second, 17:59) and Easthampton’s Will Jourdain (third, 18:18) taking the other two podium spots. Next to finish were Granby’s Colby Carleton (fourth, 19:09), Granby’s Nathan Benzon (fifth, 19:11) and Easthampton’s Roman Powers-Moran (sixth, 19: 31).

Greenfield 20, Hopkins 41 – Jack Cycz (second, 19:46) led the Golden Hawks and Emerson Thorpe (sixth, 21:38) also finished in the top 10. 

PVCICS 15, Mahar 50 – Grafton Tolopko paced the field yet again (19:58), with Owen Bauman (second, 20:01), and RJ Allen (third, 20:07) filling out the podium.

Frontier 19, Gateway 39 – Evan Hedlund (first, 15:41) picked up another win, followed by teammates Oliver Brown (third, 17:16), Charlie Dennis (fourth, 17:16), Adam Paul (fifth, 17:32) and Hengxi Yue (sixth, 17:32). Jacob Maynard (second, 16:14) paced Gateway, followed by Otis Puffer (seventh, 18:46) and Jeff Antonelli (eighth, 18:55).

Hampshire 15, Hampden Charter 50; Hampshire 15, Veritas 50; Hampshire 15, PV Christian 50 – Hampshire’s boys team continued their undefeated start to the fall (15-0) by sweeping Tuesday’s meet. The top-five runners were all Raiders – Oscar Schiff (first, 16:55), Jack Laliberte (second, 17:02), Owen Cubi (third, 17:09), Aidan Conklin (fourth, 17:21) and Nick Jones (fifth, 17:33).

Girls cross country

Longmeadow 15, Belchertown 50 – The top five Orioles finishers were Kylie Fitzgerald (13th, 24:59), Serena Jones (18th, 26:40), Aubrey Harrington (19th, 27:17), Katherine Dorman (20th, 27:28) and Margaret Wheeler (21st, 29:12).

Mohawk Trail 15, Smith Voc 50 – Sicily Chase (fourth, 18:09) paced the Vikings, followed by Samantha Pensivi (eighth, 26:00).

Granby 27, Easthampton 28 – Easthampton’s Gwen Banz (20:49) edged Granby’s Addy Hill (20:50) for the win, with Granby’s Grace Cooney (third, 21:02) and Quinn Cook (fourth, 22:00) and Easthampton’s Grace Pappadellis (fifth, 22:03) and Amelia Dodge (sixth, 23:48) following behind.

Greenfield 22, Hopkins 50 – Caprial DeBartolomeo won Tuesday’s race in 22:00, but Hopkins only fielded three runners, and five are needed to score as a team. Emily Cain placed seventh (30:20) and Evy Wanczyk placed eighth (30:58).

PVCICS 15, Mahar 50 – Sarah Fardal led the way for PVCICS (first, 22:22), with Ellery Maier (second, 22:26), and Astrid Knyt (third, 23:53) sweeping the remainder of the podium spots.

Frontier 20, Gateway 41 – Sylvie DiBartolomeo (first, 18:09) led the Redhawks to another win and teammate Liv Christensen came in second at 18:44. Ava Christie led the Gators in third place (19:07).

Hampshire 15, Hampden Charter 50; Hampshire 15, Veritas 50; Hampshire 15, PV Christian 50 – The Raiders moved to 13-1 after sweeping the top five spots on Tuesday. Kathleen Barry took first in 20:17, followed by Alex Henrichon (second, 20:38), Ada Corner (third, 21:09), Charlotte Niswonger (fourth, 21:25) and Keegan Butler (fifth, 21:26).

Field hockey

Minnechaug 6, Belchertown 0 – Morgan Sambor made four saves in goal for the Orioles.

Frontier 7, West Springfield 0 – Redhawks goalie Kyra Richards didn’t need to make a single save before being lifted after three quarters. Frontier got two goals each from Nora Sloan and Addie Harrington and one goal each from Macy DeMaio, Ashley Taylor and Lauryn Kalinowski. Ashlie Galenski, Delaney Fifield, Amelia Bouchard, Brynna Fahey and Kate Walker provided assists.

Boys soccer

Smith Voc 2, Hampden Charter 1 – Cam Ball and Jacob Maloney scored unassisted goals in Northampton on Tuesday.

South Hadley 4, Wahconah 0 — Noah Carillon made four saves to lead the Tigers to a shutout win on Tuesday.

Carlos David, Brady Graham, Ari Alatalo and Nolan Masse all scored goals for South Hadley while David dished out a pair of assists.

Girls soccer

East Longmeadow 1, Belchertown 0 — Emma Sousa netted Tuesday’s only goal as the Orioles were blanked by the Spartans despite registering more shots on goal.

Belchertown keeper Jill DeBarge stopped four shots in the box.

Northampton 8, Palmer 0 – The Blue Devils improved to 10-0 with their fourth consecutive clean sheet, powered by two goals and two assists from Olivia Busone, two goals from Olive Little and a goal and an assist each from Malia Silver and Willow Claps. Eleanor Lewis and Lilah Sage also scored and Allie Sullivan and Margaux Galvin dished out assists.

Girls volleyball

SICS 3, Easthampton 0 – The Eagles fell 15-25, 15-25, 23-25 on Tuesday evening, with Brittany Sumba leading the team with five kills and Brooke Skowron leading with five assists and nine digs.

Late Monday results

Boys soccer

Hampshire 1, Frontier 1 — Each team netted a goal in the first 40 minutes of action, but neither team could find the back of the net again as a battle between two western Mass. heavyweights resulted in a draw on Monday.

Jack Cameron scored an unassisted goal in the 15th minute to put Hampshire up 1-0, but Frontier’s Ian Paciorek put home a goal on an assist from Gus Radner to tie it up about 10 minutes later.

Jack Cusson made five saves for the Hawks while Colin Holt snagged eight saves for the Raiders.

Field hockey

Amherst 2, Hampshire 1 — Aria Haupt tallied one goal and one assist to lead the ‘Canes offense to a close win over the Raiders on Monday evening. Elizabeth Woodruff also scored once for Amherst.

Hampshire’s Chloe Moynihan recorded the Raiders’ lone goal.

Girls soccer

Granby 7, Chicopee 1 — Kalli White scored a whopping five goals to pace the Rams in a blowout win on Monday, while Brenna Moreno knocked in a pair of scores as well.

Marcela Tapia (two), Meredith Bartosz, Maggie Crawford and Kaileena Smith recorded assists and Bartosz stopped six shots in goal for Granby.

Lenox 5, Holyoke 0 — The Purple Knights were held scoreless in an independent loss to Lenox on Monday.

Holyoke fired 11 shots on goal but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Millionaires led 2-0 at half before adding three more goals in the second.