Ellington wins to clinch share of NCCC title

Oct. 22—SUFFIELD — Senior Kevin Desrocher of the Ellington High soccer team prides himself on the amount of work he puts into fine tuning his penalty kicking.

"I practice a lot outside of regular practice," Desrocher said. "I go down to the park, I practice my PKs, and just pretend like I'm in that spot."

The spot he was referring to was under the lights at Ted Beneski Field against Suffield with the chance to put his team ahead in a game with huge conference implications.

Practice makes perfect.

Desrocher's second-half penalty-kick goal was the difference as the Knights topped the Wildcats 2-1 in NCCC play Friday night.

"We've been looking forward to this game all year, especially since last year we lost on our home field," Desrocher said. "It just feels nice to beat them on their home field, on their Senior Night. They're a very good team. We just fought it out to the end."

The win assures Ellington (14-0-0, 11-0-0 NCCC) at least a share of the conference regular-season championship. The Knights can win the title outright with a win or a tie in their final conference game against Somers Wednesday. Suffield (10-3-1, 9-1-0) has two conference games left and can still earn a share of the league with two wins and an Ellington loss to Somers.

"It's something that we've been working towards since the beginning," Ellington coach Patrick Gosselin said. "These guys set that as a goal at the beginning of the season, and they've worked hard to accomplish it. Destiny is still in their hands. They want it and they showed that today."

Both teams have shined this season. Ellington entered the game ranked No. 1 in both the CIAC Class M rankings and the CSCA Class M/S state coaches poll. Meanwhile, Suffield was seventh in the Class M rankings and fourth in the Class M/S poll.

Friday's game went back and forth the whole way and was tied 1-1 with 12:00 to play when Desrocher stepped up for a free kick from near the sideline in front of his bench.

"We played it in. There was just a tussle in the box," Desrocher said. "Owen (Hoffman) headed it in, and I thought it was in. But one of their players hand-balled it. We just knew at that moment we had to take our opportunities, and that's what we did."

As the ball was approaching the net, Suffield's Tyson Tucker was called for an intentional hand ball to prevent a goal. He was given a straight red card, meaning the Wildcats had to play down a man the rest of the game, and Ellington received a penalty kick.

"It looked like they had a guy on the line that hand-balled," Gosselin said. "Whether it was on purpose or accidental. I mean I've been in that situation, I've seen my sister in that situation too. Sometimes your hand goes up and it blocks a goal. If you're a referee and you're standing right there, there's really not much you can do."

Desrocher stepped up and beat goalie Craig Gnatek to the bottom right corner of the net to put Ellington up for good with 11:25 to play.

"He's done it a million times, and he'll do it a million more times," Gosselin said.

Suffield still had its chances to equalize, perhaps none better than a Nick Van Cott free kick with 5:37 to play. He sent the ball towards goalie Cole Leavitt, who lost the ball but was able to make a diving recovery and not allow a rebound chance. The junior finished with seven saves.

"He's come up big down the stretch over and over and over again," Gosselin said. "He has constantly stood on his head to keep some balls out of the goal consistently. It's been really great to see his growth both as a leader and as a player throughout the whole season."

Owen Hoffman opened the scoring for Ellington, sending a shot off the left post and in following a pass from Desrocher with 19:46 left in the first half.

"I just made the run through," Hoffman said. "Kevin played me a beautiful ball. I took a touch and tried to get it right to the corner. The goalie had no chance."

Suffield seemingly tied it with 14.6 seconds left in the half when Daniel Robb beat Leavitt after a pass from Van Cott. But the goal was waved off when Robb was called for offsides, keeping Ellington in front at the break.

"It was one of those nights," Suffield coach Mark Cervione said. "And I'm not saying that Ellington didn't get calls that should've been blown. I have no problem if it's 50/50 both ways. That's how it is. But tonight just wasn't one of those nights."

Still, the Wildcats came out of the locker room energized and refreshed to begin the second half. With his team trailing, Robb sent a deep shot towards Leavitt with 27:31 left to play. Leavitt made a leaping punch for the save, but the Wildcats capitalized on the ensuing corner kick.

Adam Salah played it short to Ryan Sunshine. The junior fired a quick shot that tied the game.

"We've done it before," Sunshine said. "We do it a lot to try to catch teams off-guard. It just happened to go through the right seams and went into the net."

Gnatek finished with five saves in the loss.

"Craig's been phenomenal all three years that we've had him," Cervione said. "He makes saves out of nowhere."

Ellington travels to NFA — which defeated Suffield 3-1 a week ago — today for a non-conference game.

"Honestly, I have no idea," Gosselin said with a chuckle on not looking past today's game to Somers. "On the way here, I was saying to myself whatever happens here, we still have to go do it again tomorrow in less than 24 hours. That's part of the craziness of this season, that's part of the craziness of what high school soccer is. These guys have a lot of work to do tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Suffield hosts SMSA Monday before wrapping up its regular season at East Granby Wednesday.

"We're going to go back to practice, we're going to keep trying as hard as we can," Sunshine said. "We're going to know who we are and what our place is, and that's at the state championship and that's at the top of the conference."

COVENTRY 2, BOLTON 0. In Coventry, two goals by Stanley Strycharz lifted the host Patriots to the NCCC win.

Strycharz's first goal, assisted by Dominic Bugnacki, gave Coventry (7-3-3) a halftime lead. The junior added an insurance goal with an assist by Owen Dieterle with 27 minutes left.

Justin Foran made one save in goal for the Patriots while Bolton (6-6-0) received one save from Trevor Buchanan.

Coventry entertains Portland on Monday. Bolton hosts Canton Wednesday.

SOUTH WINDSOR 2, TOLLAND 1. At Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford, Dylan Hutton's goal with 32 seconds left gave South Windsor a CCC East win and clinched a tie for the division title.

The Bobcats (11-0-2) lead East Hartford by two points with one game left in the CCC East race, South Windsor takes the title outright with a win or tie against East Catholic on Nov. 1.

Ben Bernstein gave South Windsor a first-half lead. Tolland (7-4-2), which could have forged a three-way tie for the CCC East lead with a victory, got even at halftime on Vincent Cassarino's goal.

It stayed 1-1 until the final minute of regulation when Xavier Crane found Hutton with a crossing pass to set the stage for the winning goal.

Kyle Sullivan made four saves for the Bobcats. Noah Hill had seven saves for the Eagles.

South Windsor is at Berlin Tuesday, while Tolland hosts New Britain Monday.

RHAM 1, EAST HARTFORD 0. In Hebron, Sean Connolly's goal midway through the second half lifted RHAM to a CCC East win.

Erik Buden made five saves in goal for the Raptors (6-4-3). East Hartford (7-4-2) received six saves from Lesly Pinthieire.

The loss drops the Hornets two points behind South Windsor in the CCC East race with one game left. The Bobcats clinched at least a tie for the divisional title with their 2-1 win over Tolland Friday night.

RHAM hosts East Catholic Monday, the same day East Hartford entertains Plainville.

E.O. SMITH 2, EAST CATHOLIC 0. In Manchester, two goals by Griffin Stacey gave E.O. Smith a CCC East win.

Aiden D'Agata earned the shutout for the Panthers (5-8-0) with two saves. East Catholic (2-9-2) got five saves from goalie Alejandro Oyewole.

The Eagles are at RHAM Monday.

HALL 6, GLASTONBURY 0. In Glastonbury, Lucas Almeida scored twice and added an assist as top-ranked Hall coasted past No. 3 Glastonbury in CCC West action.

Eli Rotter, John Hunt, Colin Fairchild, and Jack Deloreto added a goal each for the Titans (12-0-1), who led 4-0 at the half. The Guardians are (10-1-2).

Glastonbury is at Bristol Eastern Monday before a rematch with Hall in West Hartford on Thursday.

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