Guardians Soccer Crowned Kings of CCC

Glastonbury High School boys soccer won the program’s first ever Central Connecticut Conference (CCC) Championship, defeating South Windsor in Berlin on Nov. 3. 
​
Glastonbury High School boys soccer captured a conference crown, downing South Windsor 3-2 on penalty kicks (3-1) to win the Central Connecticut Conference (CCC) Championship for the first time in program history.  

“It’s indescribable – I’ve never won a championship like this in my life,” senior captain Collin Martin exclaimed following the dramatic victory at Sage Park last Friday night.  

After 100 minutes of intense, physical soccer – including a pair of 10-minute overtime periods – Martin, Shane Keenan, and Jack Shaheen netted penalty kicks before GHS goalie Patrick Butler sealed the game by swatting away a shot by South Windsor’s Taylor Legault.

It was Butler’s second save of a penalty kick, also rejecting Aarush Kalia’s attempt.  

Following Butler’s conference-clinching save, the team rushed over to the sidelines at Scalise Field to celebrate with a large GHS student section that traveled to Berlin for the game.

Butler called winning the conference “incredible”, adding that the team’s confidence was high going into penalty kicks – “we knew what we had to do.” 

The nearly three hour match also tested the resiliency of the Guardians, who had to battle back twice to send the game into extras. 

The Bobcats of South Windsor broke a scoreless tie in the 26th minute when Alex Ouellet scored following a corner kick.

Glastonbury responded when Griffin Szalkiewicz headed in a corner kick from Keenan for the equalizer with two minutes left in the first half.

It was a similar story in the second half as the Bobcats retook the lead in the 58th minute when Legault scored from close range before Szalkiewicz headed in a free kick from Martin with exactly 15 minutes to play in regulation to tie the game at 2-2.  

Martin said the team talked about “staying composed” after falling behind on multiple occasions. 

“We knew coming in we were the better team and that we were capable of winning, we just had to make it happen.” added Martin, who credited Butler for his heroics in overtime and PKs. “Pat was unreal today, he kept us together.”

The conference-clinching victory came on the heels of a 1-0 win over top-seeded RHAM in the CCC semifinals LAST Wednesday (Nov. 1).

Senior Reece Allegro scored the decisive goal late in the first half following a corner kick from Keenan, which was deflected around before Allegro hammered the ball home with 2:36 remaining in the first half. 

“I saw nothing but the ball and I knew I had to shoot it.” recalled Allegro.

Allegro had been battling a leg injury during the last few weeks of the regular season and GHS head coach Chris Vozzolo credited him for making the most of the opportunity. 

“He’s our lone lefty and he got that left turned around and found the back of the net.” added Vozzolo.  “We’re happy he stepped in and made that huge play for us.” 

As he did in the conference championship, Butler came up clutch in the semifinals win by diving to save a shot in the final minute of regulation to secure the shutout.

Butler credited footwork for his ability to cover the entire net in the waning seconds. 

“I was expecting to get all the way across and [the ball] came off a player’s shin guard,” recalled Butler. “Every day we are working on footwork and shuffling, so I shuffled as quickly as I could.”

The semifinals triumph also avenged a loss to RHAM from five weeks earlier when the Guardians fell to the Raptors 1-0 in Hebron, dropping Glastonbury to 1-2-1.

Following the defeat in Hebron, GHS lost only one game the rest of the regular season.

 “It was a disappointing loss.” Allegro said of the Sept. 21 loss. “We didn’t play our best game in that one and we knew we had to be better and that’s what we did today.”

The Guardians entered the CCC tourney as the No. 4 seed after finishing the regular season with a record of 9-3-4 – winning the CCC-West regular season title. 

“When we saw the bracket we knew we’d play some opponents we saw in the regular season,” Vozzolo stated. “Each of those games in the regular season is a good learning opportunity.”

In the opening round, they knocked off No. 5 seed Middletown behind goals from junior captain Tim McGuire and senior Mateo Greco. The Guardians had previously tied the Blue Dragons from Middletown in the regular season. 

Butler noted that the team kept “receipts” this season on the teams they lost to or tied in the regular season, adding the Guardians were excited to see some familiar faces in the conference tournament. 

“We came in with a chip on our shoulder,” added Martin. 

The end result was a revenge tour that ended with the historic conference championship.