This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
11/12/2017 11:00 PMBoys’ Soccer
The Old Saybrook boys’ soccer team opened up the Class S State Tournament by playing two games last week and was victorious in both of them to advance to the semifinal round. The Rams now have a record of 18-1 for the year.
Old Saybrook entered the fray of states as the No. 1 seed and received a first-round bye. In the second round, Old Saybrook faced off at home against No. 16 seed North Branford and defeated the Thunderbirds 4-0 on Nov. 8. Two days later, the Rams hosted No. 8 seed Litchfield and prevailed by a 1-0 score.
In the North Branford game, the Rams came out with a strong offensive attack and worked hard to put the game out of reach as quickly as possible. Paddy Ryan got the scoring started at 5:41 off a helper from Anthony Karg. At the 34:07 mark, Shon Ryan put in an unassisted goal to give the Rams some insurance before the second half. Just two minutes later, Anthony Karg scored a goal to make it 3-0 before the intermission. Old Saybrook grabbed one more score 3:13 into the second half on a goal by Justin Phillips from an assist by Sebby Gallitto.
The Rams had 18 shots on goal to North Branford’s six, and Jonah Nucci made three saves in net for Old Saybrook. Head Coach Sam Barnes said his squad was ready for North Branford after Old Saybrook played in a tough matchup against the Thunderbirds earlier in the season.
“They gave us kind of a hard time,” said Barnes of the first meeting. “We were able to score some goals early and were able to take control of [the game in states].”
In the quarterfinals on Nov. 10, Litchfield visited Old Saybrook and, although the score was close, the Rams controlled the game most of the way en route to their 1-0 win. Old Saybrook had 31 shots to Litchfield’s three, with Nucci making two saves. Old Saybrook got its lone goal from Cooper Luciano with 21 minutes to play in the game. Coach Barnes believed the windy and cold conditions played a part in the narrow margin, but said the Rams just couldn’t finish some their chances to put the game away.
“We really outplayed and out shot them 30-3,” said Coach Barnes. “It was a windy day, and we just couldn’t finish. We had hit the crossbar. We hit the post. We outplayed them for sure, but it was a 1-0 game at the end. Their goalkeeper had a pretty good game.”
The Rams will move on to face No. 5 seed Morgan in the Class M semifinals at West Haven on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. This game will be a rematch of the Shoreline Conference Tournament semis, where Morgan won 2-0 before going on to win a share of the league title. The winner of this one goes the Class S championship game to face the winner of No. 3 seed Somers and No. 7 seed and defending champion Coventry on either Friday, Nov. 17 or Saturday, Nov. 18.
Field Hockey
The Rams’ field hockey squad won its qualifying round contest in the Class S State Tournament before taking a loss in the first round. Old Saybrook finished the year with a record of 6-10-2-1.
Old Saybrook opened states as the No. 17 seed and played at No. 16 seed Northwest Catholic in a qualifying round contest on Nov. 6. The Rams came away with a 3-2 victory to advance to the first round and face North Branford. Old Saybrook dropped a 3-1 decision to the Thunderbirds the following day.
Football
The Old Saybrook-Westbrook (OS-W) football team lost a 14-7 contest at Haddam-Killingworth in a Pequot League Sassacus Division matchup on Nov. 10.
The Rams now hold an overall record of 7-2 with a mark of 5-2 in the division. OS-W also dropped to the No. 10 spot in the Class S State Playoff rankings in which the top 10 teams qualify. The Rams will have to defeat Morgan on Thanksgiving and need several other teams to lose that week in order to get in.
Haddam Killingworth (6-2, 5-2) drove down the field early in the game and scored on a short run to make the score 6-0. Neither team could score throughout the rest of the first and second quarters, leaving H-K with a 6-0 halftime advantage. In the second half, the Cougars struck again with another short TD rumble and then added the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0 by the end of three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, the Rams started to claw their way back into the game with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Victor Pasoce to Vincent Dyer to make it 14-7 with the help of a Cooper Pavlovich extra point. After getting the ball back, OS-W attempted to tie the game up on another pass from Pascoe to Dyer, but H-K grabbed the interception, and then ran down the clock to come away with the win.
The Rams’ next matchup comes at 10:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 23, at division opponent Morgan (0-9, 0-7). Last year, the Rams defeated the Huskies 33-32 in overtime.