LEOMINSTER — Charlie Anischik turned South Hadley’s nightmare start into a dream finish.
Blackstone Valley scored three minutes into Saturday's MIAA Div. 4 boys soccer state championship game at Doyle Field. Matthew Drons unleashed his signature long throw after a shaky clearance out of bounds, and Ryan Sauter delivered a direct header to give the No. 6 seed an early lead over the top-seeded Tigers.
Many state championship games end with just one goal – tight, intense affairs where a mistake haunts a town. Anischik converted it to fuel.
“We’ve been training for that for two days. To see them score the way that we didn’t want them to score was very frustrating. These boys have a lot of fight in them,” Anischik said. “The whole year I’ve been our main guy. That just set me off.”
He poured in a hat trick in his final high school game and keyed a pulsating second half, as the Tigers won 5-2 to claim their first state championship. It was their first appearance in a state final.
“I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid. I’ve been watching other teams win these like, dang I really want to be there,” South Hadley senior Colin Quinn said. “Now that we’re really here, it’s an honor.”
“Here” appeared far away after the first half. Anischik tied the game at 1 in the 10th minute. He corralled a Carlos David pass and guided the ball into the outside of the net with the outside of his foot.
“I started playing angry, started being a little more selfish,” Anischik said.
Blackstone’s Marek Rutkowski pounced on a long pass in the 14th minute to restore the Beavers’ 2-1 lead. It couldn’t last. The Beavers’ dam of a back line sprung too many leaks.
“Our scouting report was you can probably attack their back line and you can get some shots,” South Hadley coach Eric Castonguay said. “We knew we had our plan and we needed to execute, we just needed some more time.”
The second half provided plenty.
Senior Braden Joy elated the Tigers with the tying goal in the 45th minute. He was first to a nodded ball from Anischik between two Blackstone defenders and laced it on the turf to make it 2-2.
The Tigers’ pressure intensified as the second half continued. They earned a corner 10 minutes later. Nate Carillon lofted it over Blackstone defenders to the six-yard box, where it bounced to Anischik. He measured the hop and struck a volley into the back of the net for the go-ahead goal 3-2.
Anischik completed the hat trick in the 62nd minute. Matt Gillis drew a penalty chasing a loose ball when a Blacksone defender brought him down from behind in the box. Every Tiger expected Anischik to step to the penalty and bury it, which he did to the left side of the net as the goalie dove the opposite way. That gave Anischik 38 goals on the season. He’d already set the Tigers single-season record.
“Every game, he always delivers,” Joy said.
South Hadley had never won even a Western Massachusetts championship before Saturday. Now the Tigers are state champions. No need to pinch them. It’s not a dream.