Sports
Warriors Fall to New Canaan
The WHS boys soccer team made one mistake and it ended up in their net as the team lost on the road to New Canaan 1-0.
Coming off a 7-1 win over Harding on Monday night, the WHS boys soccer team was expecting big things on Wednesday night against New Canaan on the road.
Unfortunately, WHS made a costly defensive mistake with 13:45 to go in the second half and New Canaan made them pay by scoring the only goal of the game to win 1-0.
New Canaan controlled the ball in Wilton’s zone and made a crossing pass that the WHS defense missed, allowing New Canaan’s Jon Luke Ferrandino to one-time it past diving junior goalkeeper Mike DeSantis.
“I often say to our team that one mistake will always come back to hurt you,” said head coach Jim Lewicki. “It happened tonight and unfortunately for us, it occurred during a critical point in the match.”
Throughout the second half, the team did not communicate well, missed headers, had trouble controlling the ball on the damp pitch, and could not generate any substantial offense.
WHS also got distracted by the physical play occurring between the two teams. There were a few unnecessary slide tackles and shoulder bumps that caused the team’s focus to shift elsewhere.
“I thought we lost our composure in the second half,” admitted Lewicki. “It just was not there and it hurt us.”
On the other side, New Canaan was solid throughout the game. They made crisp passes, put balls deep in the Wilton zone and clogged up the midfield, giving Wilton no room to generate any quality scoring chances.
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“New Canaan played extremely well,” said Lewicki. “They are a quality opponent and unfortunately for us, we have trouble scoring against teams like them.”
The weather was another huge factor as rainfall throughout the day made the field slippery as balls never went in one direction and players fell down left and right. According to Lewicki, the wind impacted WHS, too.
“With the way the wind was tonight, it seemed like we were trying to play the long ball,” explained Lewicki. “When we have gone with the wind this season, our team did not perform well and that showed tonight.”
With the loss, WHS finished the season with a 4-7-4 record.
