The Mount Greylock boys and girls soccer teams are heading to another Western Mass final. | Local sports

You can set your watch for two things coming in early November: daylight saving time and the Mount Greylock football program playing in the Western Massachusetts championship games.

Following the restructured MIAA state tournament and the reconstituted Western Mass. Tournament, hosted by the PVIAC, Class C featured four championship matches in girls and four in boys, and Greylock teams competed in each of them.

Winning the major trophy is a little different, as the Mounties are 1-5 overall in those games.

They will try to reverse that trend as the series continues today at Springfield Central High School, where the Greylock boys and girls teams will prepare to compete for the title as the No. 1 seed in Class C.

The Greylock boys will take on No. 6 Pathfinder at 1 p.m., and the girls will take on No. 2 Monson at 3 p.m.

In a not-so-fun walk down memory lane, in 2021, the first year of the PVIAC-branded tournament, the Greylock girls lost to Palmer 2-1 and the boys lost to Springfield International 1-0. In 2022, Monson — the 2021 Class D champion — moved up to Class C and beat the Greylock girls 3-1 — and actually beat them again in the state quarterfinals. Last year, Monson again topped the girls 4-0 in the Western Mass final. Frontier beat the Greylock Boys 1-0 in 2022, and the Mounties made their big breakthrough last fall.

The Greylock boys are indeed the defending Class C champions after a 2-1 win over Ware in the title game last fall. The Mounties were 1-0 down at the break but tied the game and allowed George Munemo’s game winner to take the crown.

Munemo has graduated and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how different things are in Williamstown this season.

Before this year, Greylock lost nearly 40-plus years of high school coaching experience. Longtime boys and girls coaches Blair Diels and Tom Ostheimer, respectively, are no longer on the sidelines. On top of that, the girls scored 19 goals and 10 assists, led by star Lily McDermott. Munemo has 12 goals, as well as championship goalkeeper Lex Anagnos. And just recently, freshman boys coach Erin Sullivan is no longer with the team.

The Greylock boys are currently coached by Mike Russo, who has guided them through Ware and McCann Tech with a combined 12-0 record in the first two rounds of the tournament. The results follow an up-and-down year for the 5-6-6 Mounties.

However, the girls didn’t seem to miss a beat under first-year coach Natalie Harris. They finished the year 13-2-2, defeating Drury and Smith pro in the tournament. With a healthy May O’Connor in goal, the Mounties have compiled nine shutouts this fall. O’Connor was injured for most of last season and only returned to goal in the title game against Monson.

Of course, it should also be noted that this is not exactly the same side of Monson either. The Mustangs beat Greylock en route to winning the MIAA Division V state championship last fall before head coach Eric Degnan retired. Degnan led Monson for 19 years, winning eight Western Massachusetts titles and two state championships. The Mustangs also scored 67 of their 139 goals during that 23-0-1 campaign, including Ciara Monahan, who had a goal and an assist in the title game against Greylock.

However, superstar junior Hannah Murphy is back after scoring over 50 goals last year. She has 44 goals this season, including 10 in the season opener against Drury. She scored a hat trick in a 3-1 semifinal win over Lenox this week.

The Mounties haven’t had that level of scoring, but they do have double-digit scorers in Nora Lopez and Mila Marcis.

On the boys side, Greylock enters as a battle-tested No. 1 seed coming out of the cutthroat Churchill League, while Pathfinder is a Cinderella entering as No. 6 after defeating third-seeded Springfield International. The Pioneers then beat No. 7 Drury after the Blue Devils upset No. 2 Lenox 1-0 in a shocking quarterfinal matchup. Pathfinders Evan Costa and Adonis Dupree each had a hat trick in a 9-1 win over Drury, and the two scored a goal each in a 2-1 win over SIX. Pathfinder has not played for Berkshire County this season.

This marks the fifth straight Western Mass final since pre-pandemic times. for the Greylock boys.