Wilton Falls To Fairfield Warde 1-0 In FCIAC Girls Soccer Semifinals

After needing penalty kicks to upset No. 3 seed Westhill in the quarterfinals, a slow start may have doomed Wilton's chances of reaching the FCIAC girls soccer final - at least that's the way Warriors coach Megan Rodriguez saw it.

Emily Pullen scored with 11:26 remaining in the first half Thursday at Testa Field as No. 7 seed Fairfield Warde defeated No. 6 Wilton 1-0 to advance to Saturday's final (2 p.m, Fairfield Ludlowe).

"I don't think we came out with the same intensity that we should be coming out to every single game," said Rodriguez, whose team defeated Westhill 3-2 to reach the semifinals. "It killed us in the first half, so now we just need to look to states."

Warde has reached its first FCIAC girls final in school history with a pair of 1-0 -- the Mustangs upset No. 2 seed New Canaan in the quarterfinals on Wednesday -- and coach Tom Cunningham is not the least bit surprised despite the No. 7 seed.

In a tournament of upsets, Warde (11-5-2) will face defending champion Greenwich in the final. The Cardinals surprised top seed St. Joseph 4-1 in the second semifinal.

"I'm not surprised because of the talent that we have on this team," Cunningham said. "It's there and it was a just a matter of time before they put it together."

After Pullen's goal, the Mustangs relied on their defense and the strong goaltending of sophomore Katie Brennen to do the rest.

"It's really exciting," Pullen said, "We worked hard to get here and it was really a team effort, both games."

"We were the No. 7 seed and people were doubting us," Brennen added. "They didn't think we should be in the (semifinals). We were proud of ourselves and we're ready to move forward."

After a fairly even first 20 minutes, Julia Delaney set up the goal with a pass into the box.

"It was headed off one of our players and I just followed up the rebound," Pullen said.

After the goal, the Mustangs settled into a defensive mode, which has served them well since they haven't allowed a goal in their two FCIAC playoff games.

Wilton (9-4-5), which ousted Westhill 3-2 in the quarterfinals, pressed for the equalizer in the second half, but couldn't convert, hitting the crossbar three times.

"We tried to maintain pressure," Cunningham said. "Wilton did a great job in the second half coming at us, but our girls did a tremendous job playing defense, playing as a team, shutting down opportunities they had, and Katie Brennen came up big again."

With 10 minutes remaining, Lindsay Knutson's blast appeared headed for the middle of the net, but Brennen got her hand on the ball to deflect it over the crossbar. It was her best save of the night.

"It's just our luck this year," Rodriguez said. "We just can't get it into the back of the net some games. Three crossbars ... we just got to work on getting it a little lower."

When it was over, Pullen had chalked up her second straight shutout in the playoffs - not bad for a 10th-grader.

"I had a lot of help from my defense," she said. "As soon as we were up 1-0, we were trying to keep it out of our end as much as possible. I tried to give 100 percent effort to try to keep it out of the net."