Big Red’s FCIAC dream Wrecked by Staples High in second half

Written by Paul Silverfarb
Thursday, 05 November 2009 00:01

Although the Greenwich High School boys soccer team fell to Staples in the semifinals of the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference tournament Monday night at Fairfield Ludlowe’s Taft Field, head coach Kurt Putnam still is quite proud of his team’s performance.

“Today we came and played,” Putnam said. “We matched them for aggression, matched them for decision-making and focus. That’s why there were so few chances in the game. It was an incredibly close game at the end of the day.”

While both teams were limited in scoring chances throughout the contest, it was Staples that was able to capitalize in the 53rd minute of play and beat the Cardinals 1-0 in the rematch of the two teams that played in last year’s FCIAC championship game.

“We carried over from what we did against Trumbull, which is a good side and I think we did really well here today,” sophomore goalie Sebastian Camacho said. “We left it all on the field here tonight and I think all our players really wanted to reached the finals. Staples is a terrific team, but unfortunately one of us had to lose.”

Greenwich had an early chance at taking the lead. With 31:10 to play in the first half, senior Kenny Doublette was taken down 25 yards away from the net. On the free kick, the ball started right and curved towards the top of the goalie net. However, Staples goalie Michael McCarthy was able to leap up and punch the ball out of harm’s way.

While the Wreckers had possession for a majority of the second half, the Cardinals still had a bunch of scoring opportunities. With 31:40 to play in the game, Greenwich senior Clayton Bowers started a corner opportunity and got the ball to the middle of the goalie net. However the Greenwich player that got a head on the ball hit the crossbar.

Less than a minute later, Bowers had another chance at the net, as he took a shot from 10 yards out but the ball sailed just wide of the net.

Although the Cards were playing toe-to-toe with the top-seeded Wreckers, it was Staples that got the goal midway through the second half.

With 27:39 to play in the game, Staples got the throw in and the ball landed on the foot of Michael Scott in the Greenwich zone. Scott booted the ball to teammate Michael Fitzgerald to the left of the Greenwich net. Fitzgerald made a nice dive and headed the ball past Camacho for the 1-0 lead.

Less than 30 seconds later, Greenwich’s Doublette had a chance to knot the game at 1-1 when he took a shot from 15 yards out, however it went just wide. With 25:15 to play, junior Thomas Agrest found the loose ball in front of the Staples’ net but the shot landed in the arms of goalie McCarthy.

With the loss, Greenwich fell to 11-3-3 overall. While the Cards came up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, Camacho said that the game was close enough that it could have gone either way.

“The last time we played them we were more nervous and were expecting a little too much from them,” Camacho said. “We really didn’t get into our game and played into their hands. I thought we dominated the first half of that game and fell apart in the second half, however in this game we were more pumped, more inspired and we felt more like a team.”

Keeping the contest a 1-goal outcome was something that Putnam was proud of. Two weeks ago, Big Red fell to the Wreckers 3-0 and while a majority of the Greenwich athletes have fallen victim to the injury bug, the team still fought hard.

“I’m incredibly proud of how far we got this year, considering the injuries we have and the changes I’ve had to make,” Putnam said. “I’ve put in players all over the place and I am incredibly happy with the way they’ve played and handled themselves. It’s a shame we don’t have the opportunity to play in the finals because I think a lot of the boys here deserve it. Three of the seniors here have had two finals and one semifinals. As a whole, the program has done very well.”

Tomorrow Greenwich High School will find out who they will play in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference class LL tournament. As of press time, Big Red was ranked 11th overall and should see at least one home game in the class LL tournament.

“We’re going to work as hard as we can in practice and try to get as healthy as possible,” Camacho said. “We need to focus and want to reach the finals, not just play mediocre games. We need to give everything we have, all the time. I think we’re a really good team.”

Putnam said that he’s hoping the one-goal loss to Staples will help his team mentally get ready for the class LL tournament.

“I would like to think this game would motivate our kids in the state tournament,” Putnam said. “I think we would really like to make a push in the states. That would have to be our goal now. We have to focus on getting further into the state tournament.

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