Cimini Spoils Cromwell’s Senior Night

(Cromwell's Michael Dale is chased by Rocky Hill's Andrew Barber)

Sam Cimini had a game for the ages and made lacrosse history, scoring 10 goals in Rocky Hill’s 15-5 victory over Cromwell last Wednesday night.

Cimini’s record-breaking display carried the Terriers to a fourth straight win and dampened the celebration of the seniors across the field at Cromwell High School. 

“It’s a school record, it feels great,” a smiling Cimini said of his historic performance, which helped improved the Terriers to 8-7 and qualified the team for a postseason berth for the third consecutive season.

Despite the 10-point discrepancy, the shorthanded Panthers played inspired for the first 20 minutes, leading 4-2 midway through the second quarter.

“We played well in the first half, we just have to be able to hold that,” Cromwell head coach Peter Tracey reflected, “We were tied at halftime and then we ran out of gas.”

Trailing by two, Cimini scored his third goal at the 4:27 mark of the second quarter and Matt Cavallo scored the first of his two goals with under a minute to play before the break, knotting the game at four.

“This was our eighth win to get into the playoffs. We knew we had to win to get in so that was a motivator, especially when we were tied at halftime. The captains and seniors came together during halftime and we got hyped up in the second half,” stated Cimini, “The first half we were struggling with our passes, but we ran our offense better after halftime. The defense made some stops and that got our offense going.”

The road team’s momentum continued in the second half as the Terriers scored four goals in the first half-dozen minutes of the third and tallied six goals all together in the quarter, including three more from Cimini.

The senior attacker added four more in the final frame to capture the record.

“Last year we had all those great offensive players and this year we’ve kind of struggled. I just wanted to step up and be a leader,” the all-conference player added, “I knew this year we were going to be a little iffy, so I just wanted to try and take that leadership role.”

Joseph Ferreira helped lighten the scoring load with a pair of goals of his own, including a dazzling lefty flick to beat the third quarter buzzer. Andrew Barber scored Rocky Hill’s other goal after receiving an assist from Cimini early in the fourth quarter.

The win cemented another trip to the postseason for the Terriers, but it’s been a different kind of season for their neighbors to the south.

“We’ve struggled through a lot of injuries this year and had to put JV players into varsity roles. They didn’t know the positions and they needed to step up and fill that void,” said Tracey, “We’ve had to ask a lot of the younger players.  There are guys out there that are freshmen or guys that have never played before. They were trust into varsity roles and they’ve performed well.”

Tracey’s Panthers haven’t seen much success in the win-loss column, winning only one game coming into Wednesday, but the first half against Rocky Hill was a positive sign for a program that is still in the developmental stages.

The coach knows that the bumps in the road are all part of the process and wants to build a winning culture in Cromwell.

“Next year I’ll have a huge core with varsity experience. Freshmen and sophomores were thrown into varsity this year and next year they will benefit from that experience. The building will go into next year were they will be experienced,” added Tracey, who only had four seniors this season.

The four seniors played important roles on the field and in the locker room the past couple of seasons, leaving a lasting impression on their successors.

“All the seniors have helped the younger guys. I made them all captains and on top of that they each have another job. They’ve all been leaders and have done a great job,” added Tracey, who was an assistant coach last year when the team finished 3-13, “I wanted to recognize them and I knew that on the field it was going to be tough, but they’ve all handle it really well.”

David Beauchemin, Nate Michaud, Alex Kochanowicz, and goalie Carlos Beltran all played their final home game in the loss to Rocky Hill.

Beauchemin, who Tracey described as an “awesome player”, scored three of the team’s five goals in defeat, including their lone goal in the second half. Junior Jack Shauck and sophomore Zachary Cyr tallied the other two.

Despite this struggles, the arrow is point up for the program. The first-year head coach is aiming to implement a youth lacrosse program in town to create a feeder program, which is similar to what Rocky Hill has created in recent years.

Last Friday, Rocky Hill’s four-game winning streak was snapped when they lost 10-6 at Berlin.

Next up is the Class S tourney, which starts next week. The team has won a first-round tourney game in each of the last two seasons, defeating Immaculate in 2015 and Suffield in 2016.

Both of those wins were at home, but this year they will have to start their playoff journey on the road and their offensive leader knows that it will take a team effort to advance this season.

“Our defense is pretty good and our goalie, Peter {Lucente} is outstanding. We need to work more on our offense, like moving around, cutting, passing the ball, and clearing the ball better,” stated Cimini, “We just qualified and now we can taste it. We want it now.”

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 Szymecki Headed to Southern

Lukas Szymecki, a senior at Wethersfield High School, has announced that he will continue his soccer career at Southern Connecticut State University. Lukas played varsity for four years at WHS, earning all-conference accolades three times and all-state recognition twice. In his senior season Lukas served as captain for the Eagles while also earning MVP honors at the annual CHSCA Senior Bowl. At Wethersfield, Lukas scored 61 goals and added 20 assists in helping his team win three consecutive CCC Divisional Titles, a 2015 CCC Tournament Title, and a trip the CIAC State Finals. Lukas has also received CCC all-academic honors, regularly achieved honor roll status at the high school, and is a member of the WHS Choralaires program. Outside of school Lukas has played eight years of club soccer for FSA and currently plays for Ajax. He has volunteer coached for the George D. Ritchie Soccer Club and taught CCD at Corpus Christi.