By PHIL BRODSKY
Orange Live Sports Writer
Sponsored by Resnik and Resnik
With last week’s Southern Connecticut Conference—Housatonic Division wins over Sheehan (2-0) and Lyman Hall (2-0) along with a 3-3 tie with Cheshire, the Amity boys soccer team heads into the final week of the regular season sporting an overall record of 11-1-2 (5-1-2 against Housy opponents).
Coach Mike Marchitto claimed that playing on the Trojans’ rocky, small dirt field made it tough for the Spartans to play their fast-paced style of game. Sean Beaulieu recorded the only goal of the first half against Lyman Hall. His goal was accidentally sending it right at Beaulieu, who was breaking toward the net and he booted it home with 27 minutes, 42 seconds gone in the first half.
He added, “Lyman Hall is a tough team and playing them on their field makes things very difficult. It’s very hard to move the ball quickly as we like to do and it took us a while to adjust to the field, but in the end I thought we did a nice job.”
The score remained 1-0 until Ian O’Brien-Cannon headed in Jeremy Conn’s corner kick at 47:54.
“Ian is a beast when the ball is in the air,” Marchitto added.
Amity outshot the Trojans 11-7 and goalie Griffin Volta made seven saves.
The loss dropped the Trojans’ record to 4-6-1.
The Spartans battle with Cheshire was a see-saw affair. The Rams’ Matt Mueller opened the scoring when he beat Volta with 10 minutes gone in the game. That 1-0 lead was erased when Conn crossed the ball from left to right and Dean Schwartz sent it home at 15:30. With the game tied at 1-1, Schwartz set up Guerra with a perfect feed and he scored at 24:40 to give Amity a 2-1 lead. Muller’s goal at 36:28 evened the tally at 2-2.
Cheshire’s Nick Berardi put the Rams back on top at 58:10 but Justyn Broderick matched that score when he drilled a pass from Guerra into the right corner of the net at 66:27.
According to Marchitto, “It was as back and forth game. I’ve never defeated Cheshire twice in the same season. I thought we were too spread out and couldn’t counter in mid-field like we did in our first game with Cheshire and we didn’t play a fast enough pace. I’d say we played only a so-so game.”
Amity outshot the Rams 14-9. Volta and his Ram counterpart, Evan Colechia, each recorded five saves.
The week ended with Amity blanking Sheehan 2-0. Both Spartan scores came in the first half. Ricky Mayer’s goal (which came at 15:41) was the result of Titan goalie John Olivierra deflecting a shot and sending it right at Maher who quickly cashed it in. Austin Duffy redirected a corner kick past Oliverra at 36:52 to make it 2-0.
“I thought we played hard in the first half. We controlled about 70% of the play but Sheehan did come at us a few times. After building our two goal lead in the first half, I think we got too comfortable in the second half. Anyone that really knows soccer, knows that 2-0 is the worst lead to have,” Marchitto said. “We needed to put them away in the second half but didn’t do. We missed at least three chances to score goals in the second half. We needed to play like the Eye of the Tiger.”
He added, “I think the reason we weren’t as sharp as we should have been was a lack of practice time. With the rain forcing us to play make-up games on open days prevented us from practicing as much as we liked and needed. We weren’t crisp.”
The Spartans outshot Sheehan 12-6 and Volta recorded five saves.
Marchitto’s boys host West Haven today at 3:45.
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