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12/03/2016 11:00 PMThere were only a few instances this fall where the Morgan boys’ soccer team was playing with a full deck. However, even though their chips were down, the Huskies went all in and once again earned an opportunity to play for a conference championship.
Head Coach Ross Demay and the Huskies went 11-4-1 for the regular season to qualify for the Shoreline Conference Tournament and earn the No. 6 seed in the Class S State Tournament. Then in the postseason, Morgan defeated Valley Regional 2-1 and beat defending conference champion Old Lyme 1-0 in overtime to reach the conference final for the second-straight season, where the Huskies took a 2-1 loss to eventual Class S state finalist Old Saybrook. For the State Tournament, Morgan routed Whitney Tech 5-0 before dropping a 1-0 contest to Cromwell in the second round.
Morgan, which finished 14 victories, recorded its achievements while dealing with multiple injuries throughout the campaign. Coach Demay said that he was disappointed with how hard the injury bug bit the Huskies this year, but added that he has great respect for his athletes considering the way they fought through the circumstances.
“From the beginning of the year, we wanted to get back to the Shoreline final and state quarterfinals. We were riddled with injuries and, because of that, we did as well as we could’ve done and fought as hard as we could have. The chemistry just wasn’t what it was a year ago,” said Coach Demay. “We were without [junior Juan Avila] for six or seven games and we had more games without [fellow juniors Marcio Valdez and Jhan Carlos Bermeo]. We never had a full-strength team until Shorelines. I thought we did well, but if we were healthy, we could have done better.”
Avila was coming off a remarkable 2015 run that saw him notch 30 goals and 10 assists en route making the All-Shoreline First Team, All-State, and All-New England squads, This year, Avila returned for his second season as one of the Huskies’ captains and was joined in that chair by goalie Anes Gadun and fellow junior Tyler Newfield, who played center back. Avila and Gadun made the All-Shoreline First Team this season, while Avila was also named All-State. Newfield scored the winning goal from Avila when Morgan beat Old Lyme in the Shoreline semis.
“Juan has the ability of taking over a game. He has that same ability in practice and help with instructions to the team,” said Demay. “Anes had a fire and passion. He helped keep everyone straight and pushed them in practice. Tyler was a silent leader who capitalized on scoring chances and did as well as he could all the time.”
Morgan’s hopes of a repeat trip to the Shoreline final—or even making the conference bracket at all—looked bleak after the Huskies went through a 2-3 stretch against league opponents from Sept. 26 to Oct. 10. However, Morgan started steering the ship in the right direction to ultimately qualify for Shorelines, where DeMay’s club gave three premier teams everything they could handle.
“After dropping those league games, we barely scraped into the Shoreline tournament by being the 6th seed in the new six-team format, but then we beat the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds. We also pushed the top seed for the first time all year until they got to the state final,” Demay said. “We learned a lot about ourselves and the team in that tournament as the boys really stepped up.”
The Huskies have plenty of upside heading toward next season. For one, the 2016 edition of Morgan featured no seniors and so the Huskies will get to keep all of their pieces in tact. On top of that, the Huskies’ setbacks from this season already have them hungry to try and reach the top of their conference and beyond in 2017.
“These guys were basically coming in expecting to be the best team this year. It didn’t happen, so the kids are already pushing themselves in the offseason, which is a big step for us,” said Demay. “A good majority of the kids will probably be in the gym all offseason to achieve our goals next year.”
From the Sidelines
This was Ross Demay’s fourth year at the helm of the Huskies’ coaching staff. The assistant coaches for Morgan were Christian DeDominicis, a varsity assistant who was in his fourth year with the club; Chris Rapuano, the JV coach who was in his second season; and newcomer Antonyo Serrano, a volunteer.
Jhan Carlos Bermeo and fellow junior James Saturno were All-Shoreline Conference Second Team selections for Morgan this year.
In 21 games played, the Huskies scored 44 goals and allowed 17 while finishing with an overall record of 14-6-1.