Ellington, Somers Boys' Soccer Teams Advance to State Title Games

Both the Ellington and Somers boys’ soccer teams advanced to state championship games on Saturday after winning their respective semifinal games this week.

Eighth-seeded Ellington (15-3-2) will take on No. 11 Tolland (14-5-1) in the Class M final Saturday at 10 a.m. in Middletown.

Top-seeded Somers (15-2-2) will face No. 7 East Hampton (12-4-2) in the Class S title game at 1 p.m. at Willowbrook Park in New Britain.

Ellington, which was the runner-up to Suffield in last year’s title game, ended No. 29 St. Joseph’s Cinderella run with a 1-0 victory in the semifinal Monday night at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury.

Ellington’s Ryan Sherba scored off a rebound and goalie Bailey Bassett earned his third shutout in four tournament games to lift the Knights into the title game.

“Bailey’s a terrific player,” Ellington coach Roy Gurnon told Doug Bonjour of the Connecticut Post. “He’s up to those big challenges. He’s had a super tournament this year.”

Read the full story at the Connecticut Post here.

Somers outscored Cromwell 4-2 in penalty kicks Tuesday night to claim its ticket to the title game.

Kyle Trusch finished with 10 saves, including two in overtime, for the Spartans.

Somers coach Rick Kelley told Jim Bransfield of GameTimeCT.com that his team was ready for penalty kicks.

“We practice them beginning the second day of practice,” Kelley told Bransfield. “We do everything to disrupt them during practice with noise, with trash talk with everything. So we’re ready for the pressure of penalty kicks.”

Read the full story at GameTimeCT.com here.

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