{"id":244632,"date":"2025-10-28T01:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T01:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244632\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T01:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T01:43:09","slug":"turners-falls-boys-soccer-blanks-gateway-in-wmass-class-d-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244632\/","title":{"rendered":"Turners Falls boys soccer blanks Gateway in WMass Class D semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>MONTAGUE \u2013 The magical season of the Turners Falls boys soccer team continues on, as the second-seeded Thunder dispatched sixth-seeded Gateway, 2-0, in the Western Mass. Class D semifinals in front a spirited fan base on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder (15-0-3) got a goal in the 56th minute from Rojelio Galvez to help send Turners Falls to the sectional championship game.  Turners Falls will play top-seeded Monson at a time and place to be determined.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel proud to be a part of Turners Falls,\u201d Galvez said. \u201cI am glad we made it to the Western Mass. finals.  I will assist my teammates, make them better. When one is down, I want to pick them up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Monson (14-1-3) won the Schmid Conference championship and downed Pioneer Valley Christian School, 1-0, in the other semifinal match up.<\/p>\n<p>Galvez\u2019s goal came on an exquisite set up from Noah Kolodziej, who penetrated the defense into the penalty area before dropping a pass to Galvez. The Gators defense committed to Kolodziej, leaving a curling Galvez an open shot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was right there,\u201d Kolodziej said. \u201cI am very thankful he finished that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder now set their sights on the first sectional championship in program history.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all really want to go out there and fight for the guy right next to us,\u201d Kolodziej said. \u201cWe want to fight for every single one of our teammates. If we can out there and play like who we are, who we prove to be time and time again.  I think we\u2019ll have the confidence to go out there and beat any teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is the third chance at a sectional championship for Turners Falls in program history, according to coach Matt Kolodziej. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe players have worked hard,\u201d Kolodziej said. \u201cIt\u2019s the camaraderie. These guys have been playing for a while together. I\u2019m here for the ride, I conduct them and tell them where to go but these kids, they wouldn\u2019t be here if they didn\u2019t want to put the energy and the work in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both teams remained scoreless through the first half. On one play, Gateway\u2019s Elijah Chepurenko launched a missile of a shot from distance that knuckled its way toward the net. Turners Falls keeper Jackson Cogswell managed to stop the shot and collect the slippery rebound, keeping the game scoreless. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really empowering to save a really good shot,\u201d Cogswell said. \u201cSaving it so we\u2019re not losing in the game. It\u2019s the biggest game we ever played in.  It\u2019s awesome for me.  I am really happy I was able to do that for my guys. They returned the favor by scoring in the second half. <\/p>\n<p>Cogswell finished with nine saves for the Thunder. In the 64th minute, Turners Falls added an insurance goal when Galvez set up Yolvin Ovalle to make the score 2-0. <\/p>\n<p>The Gators had some more chances throughout the game but could not find the back of the net. Turners Falls represents a number of challenges for opposing teams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a lot of talent,\u201d Gateway coach Andrew McCaul said. \u201cOffensively they have some kids with great touch on the ball. They make decisions at pace. You can tell they already know what to do with the ball before they get it. It\u2019s impressive to see that trait in a team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gateway now sets its sights on the state tournament. The Gators ranked 26th in the latest MIAA power rankings. The Gators are looking at a road game to start the Division 5 bracket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe defend great,\u201d McCaul said. \u201cThat was our 11th and 12th goal we have given up all year.   Just building off that. We have constantly worked on our finishing.  We still have to improve our offensive third of the field. We\u2019ll just keep doing that. We feel pretty good still.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zachary Hess made 10 saves for the Gators. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-332103\" data-id=\"332103\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1024 \/ 683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC_0175.jpg\"  \/>Gateway defender Weston Anderson, right, boxes out a Turners Falls attacker during the first half of the Western Mass. Class D boys soccer semifinal on Monday in Montague. RYAN AMES\/Gazette.<img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-332105\" data-id=\"332105\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1024 \/ 683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC_0189.jpg\"  \/>Turners Falls attacker Yolvin Ovalle-Mejia, right, runs alongside Gateway defender Andrew Chepurenko during the first half of the Western Mass. Class D boys soccer semifinal on Monday in Montague.<a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhat to Read Next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTAGUE \u2013 The magical season of the Turners Falls boys soccer team continues on, as the second-seeded Thunder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,4309,701,114746,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-244632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-high-school-sports","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-montague-ma","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}