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For more than a decade Greenwich High School's boys soccer has been unable to escape the second round of the state tournament. Thursday the curse reared its ugly head again. The Cardinals did not threaten on offense until they trailed 25th seeded Cheshire, but by then it was too late. Cheshire won its second road game in a row, outlasting the favored Cardinals, 1-0.
"We played great in the last 12 minutes, when we were down by a goal," Greenwich head coach Kurt Putnam said. "Unfortunately, we didn't come out at all for the first 68. The game is moments and we didn't take advantage of them. Tactically we've been really naïve this season and that's something we'll have to work on next year."
Greenwich managed only six shots on goal for the match, and three of them came in the final three minutes. Putnam lamented that Greenwich's play was very linear and did not do much to confuse Cheshire. That changed when the Cardinals were down and seemed to wake up to the fact that they were playing for their playoff lives.
Reg Jones and Phil Collins both got off shots in the box with not much traffic in front of them. Jones' shot sailed high and Collins' attempts was right at the keeper. The crowd groaned in agony when Spencer Tanaka's header with 50 seconds to play briefly got through the leaping Cheshire keeper's fingers, but he managed to get a hold of it to keep his team's lead. Cheshire was able to isolate star goal-scorer Marino Patrk, neutralizing his offensive threat.
"In the end, your last high school game is going to be a loss unless you win FCIACs or if you win states," senior Thomas Agrest said. "It's frustrating to lose like this, especially coming up strong at the end. It's a shame one of those [kicks] didn't go in, because we put the most pressure on them in the last 10 minutes of the game."
Greenwich finishes the season with a 12-5-2 record, including the playoffs.
For more than a decade the Greenwich High School boys' soccer team has been unable to escape the second round of the state tournament, and the curse reared its ugly head again on Thursday. Greenwich did not threaten on offense until they trailed 25th seeded Cheshire, but by then it was too late. Cheshire won their second road game in a row, outlasting the favored Cardinals, 1-0.
"We played great in the last 12 minutes when we were down by a goal," Greenwich head coach Kurt Putnam said. "Unfortunately we didn't come out at all for the first 68. The game is moments and we didn't take advantage of them. Tactically we've been really naïve this season and that's something we'll have to work on next year."
Greenwich managed only six shots on goal for the match, but three of them were in the final three minutes. Putnam lamented that Greenwich's play was very linear and did not do much to confuse Cheshire. That finally changed when the Cardinals were down and seemed to wake up to the notion that they were suddenly playing for their playoff lives.
Reg Jones and Phil Collins both got off shots in the box with not much traffic in front of them. Jones' shot sailed high and Collins' attempts was right at the keeper. The crowd groaned in agony when Spencer Tanaka's header with 50 seconds to play briefly got through the leaping Cheshire keeper's fingers, but he just managed to get a hold of it to keep his team's lead. Cheshire was able to isolate star goal-scorer Marino Patrk, neutralizing his offensive threat.
"In the end your last high school game is going to be a loss unless you win FCIAC's or if you win states," senior Thomas Agrest said. "It's frustrating to lose like this, especially coming up strong at the end. It's a shame one of those [kicks] didn't go in because we put the most pressure on them in the last ten minutes of the game"
Greenwich finishes the season with an 12-5-2 record, including the playoffs.
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