East Granby Boys Soccer Advance to the Class S Quarters

Count East Granby boys soccer head coach Chris Pettee among those who believe that a long layoff due to power outages has an effect on his team's performance in the state tournament.

And while it wasn’t pretty, the sixth-seeded boys soccer team still advanced to the state Class S quarterfinals with a 4-2 victory over No. 11 Immaculate-Danbury at home on Monday afternoon.

East Granby wasn't the only team that looked disjointed. The game featured five yellow cards, an own goal, some uneven play and Immaculate’s head coach Steve Carneiro receiving a red card for arguing with the referees.

Even with all of that, there still was some positive play in the affair. Andres Restrepo, Andrew Nigro and Ryan Aeschliman each scored for the Crusaders (11-4-1), with the fourth goal coming when an Immaculate player headed an Aeschliman cross into his own goal.

Andre Chappuis and Connor Holdbrook found the back of the net for the Mustangs (9-6-3), who drew level at 2-2 after falling behind 2-0 at halftime.

But, on balance, both teams seemed to show the effects of tournament jitters.

The Crusaders, at least, could be forgiven for their sometimes choppy play and defensive lapses, as they hadn’t played a competitive game since Oct. 28 - two and a half weeks - courtesy of the power outages caused by a late-October snowstorm and a first-round bye.

“Three weeks definitely showed,” East Granby head coach Chris Pettee said. “We were sloppy, lackadaisical and lacked the effort that we needed.”

But East Granby did show some terrific play in flashes, such as the first goal, when left back Tyler Arsenault sent a gorgeous 30-yard pass down the left side that connected with Restrepo, who chipped the ball over Immaculate’s goalkeeper for a 1-0 Crusaders’ lead in the seventh minute.

The Crusaders doubled their advantage in the 23rd minute when Aeschliman’s phenomenal run down the left side was capped with a simple cross in front of goal that Nigro only had to one-touch with his foot for a 2-0 lead.

But Immaculate played with greater purpose in the second half and was rewarded with two goals within two minutes of each other to draw even with 21 minutes left in regulation.

Immaculate had the momentum, and East Granby was in jeopardy of having its season come to a close, when a disputed call gave the Crusaders a chance from 25 yards out in the 69th minute.

In the resulting free kick, Aeschliman coolly curled the ball over the wall and into the goal for a 3-2 lead, as the Crusaders tacked one more on on an own goal to seal the victory.

“Tough game,” Immaculate assistant Kevin Malta said. “The boys played their hearts out. Unfortunately, some calls didn’t go our way, but we tried our best to play our game. The seniors deserved more, but it just didn’t happen. We built the momentum, but one little call and it took us back down.”

Pettee, for his part, was not particularly happy with the way his team played.

“We had great bursts of stuff - you can obviously see that our finishing puts us in games - other than that, I’m not overall pleased,” Pettee said.

Pettee did credit his goalie, Tyler Fricke, whose play may have made the difference between a Crusaders victory and a season-ending loss.

“His best game of the season,” Pettes said. “He’s the only one I can say came to play today.”

Still, Pettee couldn’t be too upset with the game, considering that survival is the name of the game come tournament time.

“Call it a learning experience,” Pettee said. “So we survived today and we’ll fine-tune some things for Wednesday. It’s survival in the tournament. You’re not going to get any blowouts, and teams deserve to be here. It’s just a matter of who executes the game plan better.”

East Granby is next scheduled to face No. 14 Litchfield (9-4-2) of the Berkshire League in the quarterfinals in East Granby on Nov. 16.

The Crusaders last made it to the quarterfinals in 2009 as a No. 16 seed, when they fell to No. 8 East Hampton 2-1.