Mounties Hold Off Hoosac Valley to Win Western Mass

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – No student-athlete in a Western Mass final knew their opponent better than Brady Auger.

 

And no Mount Greylock boys lacrosse player had a bigger impact on his team’s 16-14 title game win over Hoosac Valley than Brady Auger, either.

 

Auger, who won Western Massachusetts crowns the last two years as a member of the Hoosac Valley cooperative team, scored five times on Friday night to lead Mount Greylock to its 15th straight win this season and its first regional crown in just the second season since returning to varsity status.

 

Mount Greylock’s loss of a varsity program after the 2019 season is what led to Auger, a student at the Williamstown school, playing for the Hurricanes. And last year, given a choice of staying with the Hoosac Valley cooperative program or playing for the Mounties, he stayed one more year in Cheshire, helping the Hurricanes win back-to-back titles.

 

For two hours on Friday night, he and his former teammates went toe-to-toe. But it was clear after the final whistle that a piece of his heart was still on the other sideline.

 

“The kids at Hoosac, I mean, I love every single one of them,” Auger said. “I played all my high school career with them, especially Max Griffin. Me and that kid hang out all the time. That team’s just so special to me.

 

“But this team [pointing to the name on the front of his jersey] is home.”

 

Auger scored three of his four goals in the fourth quarter to help hold off a Hoosac Valley team that battled back all night and outscored the Mounties, 6-5, in the second half.

 

“All credit to Hoosac,” Auger said. “I know that coach. I know those players. They’re a strong fourth quarter team, and they really put it on us in this game. And I knew in the fourth quarter we really had to come out and score our goals. So I had to do what had to be done, and I just put it in the net.”

 

Mount Greylock put the ball in the net three times to start the game, but, in a pattern that would repeat all night, Hoosac Valley struck back to make it a 3-2 game with 3 minutes, 31 seconds left in the quarter.

 

With 2:47 on the clock, though, the Hurricanes drew a two-minute, locked in penalty, and Mount Greylock took advantage in a big way.

 

Dow Young (2 goals), Luke Irwin (2 goals) and Tanner Haig-Taylor (3 goals, 3 assists) scored goals in the span of a minute to make it 6-4 going to the second quarter.

 

“We have probably more EMO [extra-man offense] plays than we should have, but every once in a while, they’ll click, and it did in that instance,” Mount Greylock coach Dan Collins said. “There were a couple of other times we could have done better on EMO, but it scored when we needed it to score.”

 

Mount Greylock led by as many as six in the second quarter when Reed Olney (4 goals, 1 assist) found the back of the net to make it 11-5.

 

But, again, Hoosac Valley had an answer. This time a 3-0 run that ended in a score by Adan Wicks (5 goals, 5 assists) assisted by Jayden Tatro (3 goals, 2 assists) on a man-down situation to put the score at 11-8 at half-time.

 

“I’m proud of the way we played tonight,” Hoosac Valley coach Jacob Anderson-Hall said. “It would have been easy to give up in that first quarter. … They fought back, so nothing to hang their heads about. We played a really good team. It’s just the outcome sometimes.”

 

After a high-scoring first half, goals were hard to come by in the third quarter, which ended with a goal from Cam Odvar (4 goals, 2 assists) to get the Hurricanes within two at 13-11.

 

Hoosac Valley carried that momentum into the fourth quarter, outscoring the Mounties, 9-6, in the final 12 minutes.

 

But Mount Greylock keeper Oden Wojtkowski made six saves in the period to preserve the lead and the championship.

 

“He’s done a great job all year,” Collins said. “We wouldn’t be here without him. That’s how important he is.”

 

Auger scored back-to-back goals midway through the fourth to take a 16-12 lead.

 

And Wicks answered with 4 minutes, 38 seconds on the clock to get the deficit back to three goals.

 

After a timeout from the Mounties, Collins’ team was able to run down most of the clock, not giving the Hurricanes another good luck at the goal until Kamarion Kastner (2 goals, 2 assists) scored the game’s final goal with 26 seconds left.

 

“We ran our stall at the end about as well as we can run it,” Collins said. “I think that really helped, having practiced that a lot, anticipating that we might need it. We worked it, so it worked. It worked out when we really needed it.”

 

Both Mount Greylock and Hoosac Valley now turn their attention to the Division 4 State Tournament. For the Hurricanes, it will be a new challenge: bouncing back from a Western Mass final loss instead of taking the momentum of a tournament win into the final stage of the post-season.

 

“It’s a new feeling,” Anderson-Hall said. “But, again, back to the resiliency thing. You don’t quit just because something doesn’t go your way. Life is hard sometimes, but you keep fighting. You stay in the fight. Maybe good things will happen.”

 

Whatever happens over the next week or so, Auger is happy with a successful run in his first season playing for his own school after being part of a 14-4 win over the 2025 Mount Greylock program in its three-win “debut” season.

 

“I pushed myself and this team farther and farther each time I came to practice, and it just showed all year,” Auger said. “I’ve never seen a group improve so fast. They all from last year to this year; it was like a switch, and they just found it, and it happened.”