SPRINGFIELD – Top-seeded Pope Francis stifled the Belchertown boys soccer team’s offense in the Orioles’ 3-0 loss to the Cardinals in the Round of 16 of the MIAA Division 3 state tournament on Saturday.

Nicolas Dias scored twice for Pope Francis to lead the hosts to victory, which ended No. 16 Belchertown’s season at 5-7-8.

"Fast, physical, the pitch is so wide and I think that they use every inch of it to their advantage,” Orioles head coach Zach Siano said regarding Pope Francis’ strengths. “I thought structurally we did what we wanted to do, at the end of the day, they're just a little bit bigger, stronger, faster than us. They won the bulk of the 50-50 balls, they outpaced on some things and those guys came ready to play. They were hyper-dangerous at so many spots on the field and the scoreboard is a result of that."

Belchertown’s best scoring opportunity of the game came early in the second half trailing 2-0. The Orioles were awarded a free kick just outside of the box at the center of the field and nearly pulled off a trick play of sorts on a delayed-run kick from Esat Cayan.

Cardinals goalkeeper Max Graham showed off his quick reflexes though and snagged the ball to prevent Belchertown from pulling any momentum away from Pope Francis.

"It was one of those things, our assistant coach Owen Raines had drawn it up the day prior, we worked on it for the last 5-10 minutes of practice and I thought it was a great look,” Siano said. “That really could've swung the tide of things.

“I think there were a handful of times that we had really good looks, really good chances, at the end of the day, the ball's just not going to bounce our way and it didn't shake out the way that we wanted to,” Siano said. “That's one of those plays that totally could've turned the tide. I thought [Cayan] hit the ball well, I thought the keeper made a great save on it." 

The Cardinals scored at 14:48 of the first half on a goal from Gavin Grandmont, seconds after a Pope Francis throw-in, to go out in front 1-0.

With about seven minutes left in the opening 40 minutes, the Cardinals doubled their lead with Dias’ first of the contest. Pope Francis sent a through ball up the left side and Dias scurried around an off-balance Orioles defender and beat Jack Mandeville in the visitors net to make it 2-0.

Midway through the second half, the Cardinals took advantage of a misplay from Mandeville and put the game away with another goal from Dias at 18:12. Belchertown’s late desperation didn’t matter against Pope Francis’ defense, as the 3-0 score held final.

For the second straight season, Belchertown’s season ended in the Round of 16. In 2023, the Orioles lost to Dighton-Rehoboth, 2-0.

“For us to have the success that we've had this season was actually a pleasant surprise, in terms of I thought we'd be in a little bit more of a rebuild,” Siano said. “To see the seniors carry the day and push us to this spot that I didn't totally envision in the preseason was a great surprise and a testament to their character."

Eleven seniors will graduate from this year’s Belchertown squad, leaving some big shoes to fill for the Orioles underclassmen.

"It's one of our better senior classes,” Siano said. “We have 11 seniors with this class and a couple of those guys are absolute world-beaters and tried to do their best to power us through some things.”

Mandeville and Cayan join Ian McDonald, Joseph Borelli, Gavin Boisjolie, David Akodu, Joseph Yoon, Jack Sullivan, Kamden Houle, Adam Cooper and Jack Bergeron in Belchertown’s Class of 2025.