West Hartford Shines at Connecticut Cup

Curtiss Park in Simsbury went soccer crazy on Saturday as 32 teams with players ranging in ages from 10-18 (U11-U19) competed for championships in the annual Connecticut Cup. West Hartford was the clear winner as they came away with four titles after their five games.

"You could not do much better than we did," said Terry Phillip who manages the West Hartford boys U11 team.

The game of the day was the boys U16 division, which saw West Hartford battling Norwalk. This game was scoreless for all of the first half and looked like one goal may be enough to win. Early in the second half, Alejandro Tobon tickled the twine for West Hartford. The game remained 1-0 throughout much of the second half with Norwalk getting very few good scoring chances. Then, with just 1:32 to go in the game, they got the equalizer.

This game seemed destined for overtime until Norwalk fouled West Hartford inside the goal box resulting in a penalty kick for West Hartford. Rodrigo Giraldo was poised to give West Hartford the lead with seconds remaining, but his shot was stopped by the Norwalk goalie. On to overtime the game went. Connecticut Cup rules dictate that games ending in a tie are decided by two 10 minute, non-sudden-death overtime periods. If there is still no winner, both teams are declared co-champions.

Norwalk got the better of the chances, but could not seem to put anything in the net. It looked as though the two teams would share the cup. Then with under a minute to go, Tobon knocked a header in, for his second goal of the game, giving West Hartford a 2-1 win and sole possession of the boys U16 Connecticut Cup. It was the fourth Cup earned Saturday by a West Hartford team.

West Hartford also took the boys U15 for Cup number three, beating Simsbury 3-2. Percy Algarate had two goals, but it was Keith Szabo who netted the decider late in the second half. Keegan Rice and Drew Simeon scored the Simsbury goals.

The boys U14 team won the first Cup of the day for West Hartford. The United shut out the Simsbury Stingers 2-0. Robert Place and Andre Rodrigues scored the goals.

West Hartford TNT and Farmington played two 30 minute halves and two 10 minute overtimes without a single goal being scored in the boys U11 title game.  Both teams were named co-champions.

Phillip gave a lot of the credit for the day's performance to John Monnes who is the director of West Hartford Soccer's Travel Division.

"The volume of players we have to choose from is a lot better since John [Monnes] got involved [in the try-outs]," Phillip said. 

The only West Hartford team to lose on Saturday were the Huskies, who fell to Tolland 5-1 in the girls U14 division.

Farmington was undefeated in their three games. They earned a victory in the girls U1T over Simsbury 2-1. Stephanie Helin had a goal and assisted on Kelly Rio's goal. Hayley Selvage-Mairano scored for the Sensation in the loss.

"Simsbury was a strong team ... We've played them a lot in the past," said Garrett Ratcliffe, the girls U13 team manager and director of Farmington Travel Soccer.

Farmington shared the championship with NECONN in the girls U16 after a 0-0 tie, just as they were in the boys U11 with West Hartford. Ratcliffe said "we are all very proud of all three teams making it to the championship games."

Simsbury really struggled on the day losing in all four of their games. "It is an anomaly that we didn’t win one event," said Tom Hayden, director of Simsbury Soccer.

In addition to the losses to Farmington and West Hartford in the girls U13, boys U14, and boys U15, the U19 girls fell to North Haven 3-2 despite goals from Jess Werle and Meredith Willis. Simsbury fought back from a 2-0 first half deficit to tie this game up. Willis' goal, which was set up Caitlin Daily, was the equalizer and it seemed to give Simsbury the momentum. But North Haven scored what turned out to be the game winner with 12 minutes to go.  

Despite the lack of wins, Hayden looked on the bright side. "There was some good soccer played ... It certainly puts the home field advantage argument to rest," he said.

He also reminded everyone that sports at this level is really about the kids having fun. "Winning is kind of a secondary thing ... [We were] not disappointed about the outcome." To take a look around at all the smiling faces on all sides, you know he was speaking the truth.