Rosenberger, East Granby Roll to 6-0 Victory Under the Lights

Based on his teammates’ and the crowd’s collective reaction, one would have thought that boys soccer player Sean Rosenberger had just secured a trip to the state tournament with the goal he scored against Windsor Locks under the lights on Saturday evening.

Indeed, Rosenberger, a beloved senior captain, was mobbed by his fellow Crusaders as the crowd of 500 people cheered wildly when he converted a gorgeous goal inside the Raiders’ 18-yard box in the 59th minute.

But the celebration was less for the goal’s significance in the game - it put the Crusaders’ up 4-0 en route to a 6-0 victory - as it was for Rosenberger’s career; it was his first in an East Granby High uniform.

As the center midfielder, Rosenberger doesn’t get too many scoring chances, as his job is to distribute the ball to his attacking teammates that are ever pushing forward.

Hearing East Granby High head coach Chris Pettee describe Rosenberger’s contributions to the program, it isn’t difficult to understand why everyone was so happy for him.

“He’s just one of the best kids I’ve ever coached,” Pettee said. “He’s a good kid. He works really hard. He’ll do whatever you say. For him to score a goal on his senior day, under the night lights … it’s just awesome. What a night to do it. You can’t ask for better than that.”

The whole game, the second half of the 7th annual soccer under the lights doubleheader, turned out to be a celebration for the Crusaders, which gave a fitting send-off to their four seniors: Ryan Aeschliman, Michael Hann, Rosenberger and Brian Watterlond.

Aeschliman fittingly opened the scoring in the 10th minute, and Andres Restrepo, Andrew Nigro (twice), Sean Rosenberger, Andrew Nigro and Luke Bilodeau each tallied for East Granby (6-4-1, 6-4-1 NCCC), which forced the attack all game.

“We definitely did a great job putting them under pressure not allowing them much time on the ball and when they did have the ball they felt the pressure and they were making mistakes we were able to capitalize on," Pettee said. "I was really happy with it."

Crusaders goalie Tyler Fricke made five saves, several of which were spectacular, to earn his fourth clean sheet of the season.

“He does a great job,” Pettee said. “He doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He does a really good job of helping Brian, our sweeper, kind of organize our defense, so he doesn’t have to do too, too much. But we don’t want our goalkeeper to do too much.”

Watterlond, a back embodied East Granby's spirit, urging his teammates "Up!" any time possession was in their favor.

Windsor Locks goalkeeper Ed Langan made six saves for the Raiders, which fell to 2-9 (2-9 NCCC) on the year.

“[East Granby] just came out with a lot of spark,” Windsor Locks head coach Frank Giannuzzi said. “They got us down a couple of goals. We gave it a good battle. We’re a young club. a little. injured a little banged up. We fought the best we could They were a much better team tonight.”

East Granby is scheduled to face Ellington at home at 3:45 on Tuesday, while Windsor Locks has Stafford at 7 p.m. on the road Tuesday.