The 12 seniors on the South Windsor High boys soccer team ended their regular-season careers in style Monday afternoon, thrashing Wethersfield 4-0.
Four seniors - Zachary Heckt, Andrew Smith, Evan Cheman and Curtis Bolden - scored for South Windsor (10-2-1) on their Senior Day, as the Bobcats earned a rare easy victory against the Eagles (6-7).
“This is a once-in-a-generation team for Wethersfield - they’re always ridiculously good,” South Windsor head coach Dave St. Jean said. “I think they are just a couple of players away from turning it around.”
Indeed, the Bobcats pressured the Eagles relentlessly for nearly the entire game in Wethersfield’s final third of the field.
“We had a similar type of a game against East Catholic, but we couldn’t finish,” St. Jean said.
St. Jean attributed the Bobcats’ relatively long layoff - the first game in a week - as the reason for being so sharp. And while each goal was well-executed, Cheman’s - a left-footed strike from the left side from 20 yards out - was the kind that one pays money to see.
“He’s fantastic,” St. Jean said of Cheman. “he’s got the potential to be the best player out of the group. We’ve got 12 seniors, half of which are looking to play at the next level. Evan is just a diamond in the rough. He’s just going to sparkle at the next level.”
Another senior - goalkeeper Eric Hintz - had six saves to earn the clean sheet, the team’s sixth of the year.
Prior to the match, the Bobcats bade farewell to Heckt, Hintz, Cheman, Thomas Basile, Robert Chambers, Christian Lopes, Steven Battaglini, Andrew Pantason, Jeffrey Allen, Smith, Alex Bordonaro and Matt Goodall.
“They took us to the next level,” St. Jean said of his crop of seniors. “They took us from a good program to a recognized force in the state. We haven’t won anything yet and these guys know that. That’s a priority for them to take it to the next level.”
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