BELCHERTOWN — When asked how it felt to be heading to her first Western Mass. finals as head coach of the Belchertown field hockey team, Dina Brunetti couldn’t think of any words to describe it.

She collected her breath following the No. 1 Orioles’ 2-0 win over No. 4 Smith Academy in the Class B semifinals – the same round her team lost in at home last fall – and finally spoke.

“I think my heart rate is still in triple digits,” Brunetti said, “so I don’t even know what to think or feel right now. I’m stunned.”

Belchertown will play No. 2 Southwick in the championship game on Monday night (7 p.m.) at Holyoke High School.

The Orioles jumped ahead early, getting a goal from Kina Roy off assists from Mya Philpott and Lila Roy on a corner to take a 1-0 lead midway through the first quarter. But from there, the underdog Falcons played with the hosts step-for-step until the final whistle.

Despite Belchertown boasting a better record and seed than Smith Academy, Brunetti was prepared for a fight from start to finish. She knew Falcons head coach Judy Strong, a former Olympian field hockey player, would have her team prepared and ready.

And they were.

“I knew that we had the better record, but I knew what they were gonna bring,” Brunetti said. “I know who there coach is, and she brings intensity. I like her very much. I saw [Smith Academy] play, I knew they had nothing to lose and would come in with intensity. I know their fans bring intensity, and we saw their players feed off of it. But, you know, we bring the intensity too.”

The game remained 1-0 at halftime with Belchertown controlling the majority of possession, but Smith Academy certainly had its chances to put up an equalizer.

Those opportunities expanded into the third quarter, as the Falcons came out of the break with a ton of energy. They outplayed the Orioles, and on a handful of occasions had the ball in golden spots to put one home. But the Belchertown defense withstood the Smith Academy onslaught, and Orioles goalie Morgan Sambor stood tall to deny all of the Falcons’ shots on goal – the best ones coming in that third frame.

“To me, that quarter was the game-changer,” Strong said. “Had we popped one in, the game maybe goes differently. The ball entered the circle enough that had we gotten a stick on it at the right time, it changes the whole momentum of the game. But we didn’t. We had our chances, everything was going our way and [Belchertown] was getting a little frustrated with our momentum. We just had to put one in.”

And as all good teams do, Belchertown took advantage of Smith Academy’s missed opportunities right away.

Not even a minute into the fourth quarter, the ball found Orioles forward Gianna Zenon a few feet inside the circle after Smith Academy goalie Madison Didonna-Renner kicked it away from goal. Zenon put a good swing on it, and the ball snuck its way through all the traffic and into the cage for a score – putting Belchertown ahead 2-0 and ripping away the momentum the Falcons worked so hard to seize.

On that goal, Belchertown was without one of its best players in Kina Roy – who left moments earlier due to a green card. Down a player, the Orioles still found a way to double their lead.

The grit shown is exactly why they have a chance to capture their second Western Mass. title in three years.

“In my head, with how that third quarter went, I was thinking, ‘All Smith has to do is put one in and we’re in a whole different mood,’” Brunetti said. “But [we] came out in the fourth, with one of our best players out of the game, and found a way to score in seconds. If that doesn’t say how much we can play with intensity; that was the difference right there.”

Didonna-Renner made it as hard on Belchertown as she could protecting the cage. The freshman goalie was phenomenal stopping shots from everywhere. On one instance, she lunged from the left side of the goal all the way to the other – covering ground in a split second – to deny the Orioles of a goal.

She consistently made plays to keep Smith Academy within striking distance, something Strong said she’s been doing all year.

“They had a bunch of hard shots on goal, and they hit the ball hard, but between the defense and Madison making those saves, it kept giving us a chance,” Strong said. “I thought our defense played very well, and Madison held her own for the kind of shots that were coming in there.”

Belchertown (13-4) will now have the weekend to prepare for Southwick, a team the Orioles haven’t seen under Brunetti. The Rams defeated Franklin Tech 4-0 in the semifinals on Wednesday, and Belchertown is well aware it’s in for a challenge come next week.

“I only know Southwick from film,” Brunetti said. “I don’t know much about them, but we’ll find out Monday.”

Smith Academy (8-8-2) is awaiting its seed and preliminary round matchup in the MIAA Division 4 state tournament.