After a nearly month-long skid, the New Canaan High School boys' soccer team finally turned its season around. Rams goalie Scott Levene literally saved the season defending against a relentless second-half attack by Westhill. The Rams knew coming into the final game of the regular season that they needed only to tie to claim the final spot, and that's just what they got, coming out with a 1-1 draw and the eighth and final spot in the FCIAC tournament.
"When they scored that equalizer so early in the second half you get a little nervous," New Canaan head coach Victor Sanchez said. "It's just a matter of the boys stepping up and playing big, and they did."
Steven Valente, playing with a broken left wrist, put a nice touch on the ball past the Westhill goalkeeper. Thirty seconds into the second half, however, Westhill's Christian Olivia raced up the right sideline unopposed, fed the ball to a waiting Christian Esquivel, who slammed it past Levene.
Westhill played the rest of the second half with an urgency that had not been present for much of the season. With their FCIAC hopes on the line, the Vikings got off shot after shot, but they either went wide of the net, or Levene was there to make the stop. Levene single-handedly preserved the Rams' FCIAC hopes with an incredible leaping save to his right, punching the ball up, making it ricochet off the post and miss the net by inches.
"For 79 minutes and 30 seconds we played very well," Levene said with a laugh. "I was scared I didn't get enough of that save. I thought he was going to try to curl the shot back post, so the shot took me by surprise.
New Canaan finishes its FCIAC season with a 7-4-4 record and 25 points. They take on No. 1 seeded Norwalk at Testa Field on Friday at 4 p.m in the first round of the FCIAC playoffs.
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