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09/23/2016 12:00 AMThe North Haven boys’ soccer team has hit a bit of a rough patch early on this fall, but Head Coach Federico Fiondella made it clear that he has faith in his team and feels the Indians possess the potential to put together a solid season. After shutting out Putnam in its opener, North Haven has dropped its last four games, including a 3-2 loss to Career-Hillhouse on Sept. 21 and a 5-0 contest at West Haven on Sept. 24. Coach Fiondella wants the squad to put those games in the rearview mirror, while still heeding the lessons they learned from those defeats, and gear up for the crux of the 2016 campaign.
“The coaches were very impressed on how well we played in the first three games and, although the Career game did not go the way we wanted, I believe in this team and am certain that we can bounce back and perform at our best once again,” Fiondella said.
The Indians began last week by taking a 6-0 loss in Shelton in a Hammonasset Division matchup on Sept. 19. It was a 1-0 game until sophomore defender Justin Shea left with an injury late in the first half, after which the Gaels scored five more goals on their way to the win.
Two days later, Fiondella’s club hosted Career-Hillhouse and took a 3-2 defeat. North Haven grabbed a 1-0 lead just a minute in when the ball was deflected into the Panthers’ net by one of their defenders. Freshman midfielder/forward Kacper Skonieczny was credited with the goal. Career-Hillhouse came back to it in the eighth minute and took a 2-1 lead five minutes later. However, the Indians had an answer as freshman forward Jose Rodriguez scored on junior midfielder/forward Brian Daley’s assist to make it a 2-all game with 10 minutes left in the opening stanza. Fiondella called it “a beautiful play” that saw Daley beat his defender and deliver a nice cross in the center of the box to Rodriguez, who headed it into the left corner of the goal. Unfortunately for North Haven, the Panthers went up 3-2 with about 10 minutes to play in the game and hung on for the victory. Junior goalie Riley Powell made four saves for the Indians.
North Haven has fared well against Career-Hillhouse in recent years and Coach Fiondella felt his team could have played better in this one.
“The coaching staff was very disappointed. Career worked hard for the win and they deserved to win because they worked harder than we did,” said Fiondella. “We were ball watching and the worst thing that happened was the own-goal because so we scored so quickly that, psychologically, the players thought they would walk all over Career after that. So it almost felt like the game was over, even though the coaches keep pushing the players to never stop pushing forward.”
The day after the loss, the Indians held a meeting where they talked about some of the things they need to do to be successful this year. Coach Fiondella said it was a productive meeting in which everyone was on the same page regarding the team’s approach for the rest of the season.
“We told them that we are going to put aside discussing wins and losses and focus on the immediate things that need improvement or things that we were doing well in the first few games,” he said. “It was a healthy and very good conversation involving the whole team. We were all agreeing on many items, such as our work ethic, giving more at practices, and stepping up and not just leaving it for the senior captains or seniors.”
Fiondella added that one crucial component for North Haven going forward for is for his athletes to be assertive on the field and trust their instincts in order to make quick decisions, instead of relying as much on verbal instructions from the goalie, the captains, and the coaches. The Indians’ senior captains are defender Steven Pugliese and midfielder/forward Matt Iovanne. Fiondella said it’s beneficial to have each captain patrolling different ends of the pitch and feels they complement each other well.
“Steve and Matt are two different captains. Steve is more the vocal captain that fires the team up and Matt has always been the captain who goes out there and just tries to do his best and lead by example, so it’s a good combination,” Coach Fiondella said. “They also want others to step up and be leaders with them and that’s something we’re encouraging and that we discussed at the meeting. But we’re also on top of them about stepping up their game vocally and physically and going out and leading by example at all times. We’re always on them in terms of that and they seem to be coming through when we’re on top of them about that.”
North Haven features three other seniors who are all defenders in Ryan Harvey, Jonathan Goodrich, and Ben Kuru. Kuru is a Varsity in Training (V.I.T.) player, which is a captain of the JV team who’s also on the varsity roster with an aim to play for the big club by season’s end.
“Ryan was added on this year and I wish he had come to us for all four years. He had an impressive preseason and took over a starting position as an outside defender. We talked when last year ended about him wanting to be part of the team and we got lucky that he joined us because he’s a solid, quick outside defender,” Fiondella said. “Jonathan was a V.I.T. last year and is one of the top three of four Most Improved Players in the history of our program. He has an incredible work ethic and loyalty and, whether he’s on the field or the bench, he is always cheering the team on. Everything is about the team. He’s very unselfish and a hard-working, respectful young man, in and out of school, who’s improved every aspect of his game and I’m very proud of his achievements.”
“Ben is a transfer from Law and he’s a remarkable young man who had some medical-related concerns the last few years, but things seem to have settled, so we’re very fortunate having him on the field this year because we weren’t sure if he’d be up for playing,” Fiondella continued. “We’re working on building more endurance, speed, and the technical aspects of the game with an eye toward Senior Night because we’d love to call him up and join varsity officially.”
North Haven still has several games to play before its closes the regular season on Senior Night. Between now and then, Coach Fiondella wants to see the Indians progress in the right direction and he believes that his athletes’ belief in themselves will play a heavy hand in that quest.
“I always tell the boys before the game at halftime, ‘Boys, I believe in you. Do you believe in yourselves?’ and they always scream, ‘Yes, we do coach!’” he said. “I want us to believe in ourselves, support one another, and do good for the team, and I think we can. I think it’s a matter of time, but time runs out, and we need to resume because we took a little time off.”
From the Sidelines
This is Federico Fiondella’s 15th season as head coach of the North Haven boys’ soccer team. Fiondella is joined by assistants RJ Notaro, Peter Solomon (who’s also the goalkeeper coach), John Johnson (who’s also the JV head coach), Dave Fazzuoli, and RT Iadarola.
Along with everyone already mentioned, North Haven’s varsity roster features juniors Christian Muralles (midfielder), Duval Pacheco (midfielder/forward), Max Paolillo (midfielder), Ethan Pavano (midfielder), and Sam Preschel (midfielder/defender); sophomore Ben Blumenthal (midfielder/forward), Quinn Dallai (midfielder), Chris Damone (defender), Matteo Franco (goalkeeper), Angelo Fraschilla (midfielder/defender), Mikail Panferov (forward), Jacob Skonieczny (defender/forward), and Jobin Valiyaveettil (midfielder); plus freshmen Tillman McFadden (defender) and Patrick Grudberg (V.I.T. midfielder).
The Indians’ team managers are Alex Holle, Harrison Callahan, Giovanni Calderon, and Amin Moussaid.