GREENFIELD — The Greenfield girls soccer team entered Saturday’s MIAA Div. 5 preliminary round contest against Athol seeking revenge after the Bears snatched the Bi-County title away from the Wave earlier this fall. 

Greenfield and Athol entered their Oct. 17 contest with one loss in the league, but the Bears pulled out a 1-0 victory to earn the league title.

When the two squads met for a third time on Saturday in the state tourney preliminary round, the Wave attack was not going to be denied. 

Greenfield got on the board two minutes into the contest and tacked two more goals on before the halftime whistle to take a 3-0 lead at the break. The 30th-seeded Green Wave added two in the second half and didn’t allow the 35th-seeded Bears to get on the board, advancing to the Round of 32 with a 5-0 victory. 

“It feels really good to be here,” Greenfield’s Elderina Cecunjanin said. “We lost to [Athol] during the league final and we wanted to come out here and prove we should have won that and that we just slipped up that one game. It should have been ours but we showed it here today. We earned this win.” 

The Green Wave (15-4) advanced to play No. 3 Tahanto in the Round of 32. That contest is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday in Boylston. 

The loss closed the season for Athol (13-4-1), though it doesn’t take away from all the Bears accomplished this season as they took home the league championship for the second year in a row. 

“We had a great season,” Bears coach Tim Cleveland said. “We win the league for the second year in a row, that says something. I’m super, super proud of them.” 

It was Holly Babineau who put Greenfield on the board in the game’s second minute. Zephyr Jetzon dished the ball to Babineau and the junior blasted a shot that deflected off the Athol goalie and in to give the Wave the early lead. 

Tayler Bergeron made it a 2-0 game in the 26th minute. Cecunjanin got the ball in the middle, passed it over to Bergeron on the right wing and the sophomore took a dribble. From a tough angle, she rocketed a shot into the top left corner of the goal to add to the Greenfield lead. 

After failing to score against Athol when they played a few weeks ago, getting the early lead and showing they could put the ball in the back of the net was big for the Green Wave’s confidence. 

“That was really big for us,” Cecunjanin said. “Once we start shooting, it just keeps going in. We just have to keep firing.” 

Sarah McCloud tallied in the final minute of the half off a corner. Cecunjanin sent the ball in and McCloud was there to deflect the ball into goal to give Greenfield its 3-0 lead at the intermission. 

“I felt pretty good out there but it was a little hard to find the back of the net,” Cecunjanin said. “I just wanted to give my teammates chances because if I can’t score, they can. They’re always there for me when I’m not scoring and it’s really important to be able to rely on them.” 

Athol started to gain possession throughout the second half, but none of the three shots it put on goal made it past Greenfield goalie Annie Cobileanschi. 

The Bears were shorthanded, playing without their starting goalie which forced Cleveland to move the lineup around. 

“We didn’t get in front of the net and didn’t get enough shots to beat a team like this,” Cleveland said. “We’re short and had to move some players around. We’re down our starting goalie so you take a defender off the field who hasn’t played goalie in two years. It’s affected us the last three games, that’s for sure.”

Bergeron added her second goal of the game in the 65th minute. Natalia Cody sent the ball ahead to Bergeron and the sophomore used her speed to get behind the defense and drill the shot home to give Greenfield a 4-0 lead. 

Cecunjanin got on the board in the 75th minute. Bergeron put a shot on goal that was deflected by an Athol defender, but Cecunjanin was there to corral the bouncing ball and knock it into the back of the net to close out the Wave scoring. 

Now going up against No. 3 seeded Tahanto on Monday, Cecunjanin said Greenfield needs to play with the type of confidence it did on Saturday to come out with a win. 

“We’re going to need that confidence going out to Tahanto,” Cecunjanin said. “It’s all mental with us. We have to beat our opponent mentally first. If we’re checked in, we do well.”