Guttermuth, Eckhardt Fuel Granby Comeback in Class M Semifinal

At practice on Enfield High’s synthetic surface on Thursday, head coach Gerry Trieschmann had one message for his players for when they played Nonnewaug in the state Class M semifinals on Friday evening in Meriden.

“I said, ‘Look the goal scoring has to come from someone other than [leading scorer] Gabby Dixon,’” Trieschmann said. “‘Gabby’s getting doubled teamed and beat up. It just has to come from somewhere else.’”

Mission accomplished.

In a thrilling match featuring two previously unbeaten teams, the Chiefs managed to keep Dixon off the scoreboard, but Michele Guttermuth (two goals) and Sarah Eckhardt (one goal, which was the game winner) stepped in to fill the void as Granby Memorial overcame two deficits to defeat Nonnewaug 3-2 in double overtime.

While it may not have been a surprise that the Bears (17-0-1) won to advance to the Class M final game next week, the manner in which they did certainly was.

Indeed, Nonnewaug (17-1-2), the tournament’s third seed, was one of the more difficult teams to score on in the state, having yielded just four goals in its 19 previous games.

So No. 2 Granby Memorial had its work cut out for it when it fell behind 1-0 in the first half and 2-1 late in the first overtime period.

Not that the Bears players were worried.  

“We don’t even think about it,” said Eckhardt, who scored the exquisite game-winner in the 94th minute (more on that later). “All we think about on the field is winning. We don’t care who we’re playing or what their history is. We just go out and play our game.”

The first 35 minutes of play yielded little evidence of what would transpire in the following 70, with precious few scoring opportunities as both teams acclimated themselves to one another and the large field that serves as Platt’s home turf.

All of that changed in the 37th minute, when Nonnewaug’s Katie Burke scored off a delicious corner from Kendall Soracin for a 1-0 lead.

That seemed to wake the Bears up from their hibernation, as they attacked with renewed purpose.

Less than two minutes later, Granby midfielder Michele Guttermuth brought the game level at 1-1 when she slotted home after the ball caromed back to her off the post from Kristen Forbes’ shot.

Neither team could solve one another in the second half, however, though there were several scoring opportunities and more than a dash of controversy thrown in to boot.

In the 55th minute, Nonnewaug's Christina Balou took possession of a loose ball in front of the goal but fired wide to keep the game even.

Several minutes later, Granby Memorial appeared to take the lead 2-1 when Guttermuth poked home a rebound off Caroline Wutka’s free kick that required Chiefs goalie Megan Mitchell to make a diving save.

The Bears’ elation quickly shifted to the Chiefs when the linesman raised his flag to call offside, wiping out the goal.

"The linesman did have the right call," Nonnewaug head coach Nick Sheikh said. "Our defense thought it was offside as well."

At the end of regulation, the teams remained knotted at 1-1, yielding to two 10-minute overtime periods.

The Chiefs again looked like they had taken the game by the horns when Soracin scored with just under three minutes left in the first overtime.

But Granby Memorial is nothing if not resilient, as Guttermuth poached her second goal of her game - this one counted - less than a minute later to bring the game level again, this time at 2-2.

“That’s how she scores,” Trieschmann said of his forward who lurks in front of the goal looking for the ball to be recycled to her for a scoring opportunity. “That’s what I love about these girls. They just look at each other and say, ‘Wow, we’re not going to let that happen anymore. Let’s go back and get one.’”

To describe his team’s emotions having allowed the equalizer for the second time in the game, Sheikh used a tennis analogy.

“You know, it’s like holding serve,” Sheikh said. “You hold serve, you hold serve, then you get broken. It can be pretty heartbreaking. To get those two to go up, you feel like you won it. I think the intensity of [the game] may have gotten to us a little bit.”

Eckhardt completed the gritty comeback in the second overtime when she collected a pass from Audrey Turcotte in the center of the 18, wielded around to her left and, in one motion, fired a perfect strike into the lower right-hand corner to put Granby Memorial ahead 3-2 in the 94th minute.

“It feels amazing,” a bloodied Eckhardt said of her game-winner. “I’ve got blood all over. It was definitely a tough game. They were all on our backs, but we just played through it.”

Granby Memorial successfully killed the remaining six minutes and, when the final horn sounded, the players swarmed one another to share in an exhausted celebration.

With the victory, the Bears moved one step closer to having achieved all of their goals: an undefeated season, the NCCC title and a state championship.

Eckhardt credited her team’s experience as the reason for remaining so focused.

“It worked into our favor that we have a lot of seniors on our team, because we all take it so much more seriously,” Eckhardt said. “We know if we lose, that will be our last game and we had this mentality that we had goals at the beginning of the season and we’re going to take them through. We’re going to win.”

The end result left Trieschmann at a loss for words.

“I got nothing,” he said. “I’m spent. So many things happened tonight. The resiliency … we got scored on, we came back within two to four minutes … just to watch what the girls did...”

The Bears will face Northwest Catholic on either Nov. 25 or 26 at a site and time to be determined. It’s Granby Memorial’s first trip to a state tournament final game since 2001, when the Bears won the state Class S title 2-0 over Windsor Locks.

Eckhardt said that her team’s ability to score goals outside of Gabby Dixon should give Northwest Catholic something to think about.

“It definitely puts an intimidation factor into play for the finals, because all they’re thinking is, ‘We just have to mark Gabby Dixon, we just have to shut her down, and we’ll win,’” Eckhardt said. “Now that we’ve put a little fear that she’s not the only one can score.”