Welcome to the tenth installment of “Set Piece”, the Southington High School Soccer team’s blog spot.
Blue Knight’s on the Pitch: A Look Back and a Look Forward
Varsity:
On Monday, the Blue Knights where on the road for a rematch with Winsdor High School. Southington had beaten Windsor earlier in the season and is the only team that Southington would play twice this year. Southington started the scoring with a goal by Elijah Rodriguez off of a corner kick. The Blue Knights second goal was on a break away finished by John Testa that started with a rebound of a Windsor shot the deflected off the Southington goal crossbar. The first half ended with Southington up 2-0. The Blue Knights continued to press and scored another goal by Owen Bajrami off a thrown in from Dan Topper. The scoring for the game was capped by a final goal by Southington on some nice open field ball movement by Ronaldo Nieto and then a finish by John Testa for his second goal of the game. Evan Daddona pitched another shutout and the Blue Knights left Windsor with a 4-0 victory.
On Friday, Southington returned home for a match against Avon High School. With this being the last home game, all of the senior class members of the team were in the starting line-up. With a 6pm start and the sun down it was a chilly evening. The first half was played very evenly with not many chances generated by either team and the half ended 0-0. As the second half started, the pace of play began to pick up. The Blue Knights finally broke through as Alexis Frausto put a ball on net and John Testa cleaned up the rebound for the goal. For the rest of the half, Southington worked very hard to protect the 1-0 lead. The team nicely balanced a defensive mindset while still continuing to generate scoring opportunities. The game ended with a 1-0 victory and Evan Daddona’s finished with a clean sheet for the week. The Blue Knights finished another two-win week. The entire Southington Soccer family wishes Dan Topper a speedy recovery from the ankle injury that occurred during the second half of the game.
The Varsity team record at the end of this week is 8-4-2
Looking forward to next week
The last regular season game of the year will be on Monday, October 31st on the road against Northwest Catholic at 3:45pm. Southington will then wait to find out their next opponent for the first round of the state tournament.
Senior Night
Prior to the game on Friday, the Southington High School Soccer family took a moment to acknowledge the senior class. Each player along with their family where introduced as they all joined each other in the middle of the field. As special as this was for each player, this was also a special acknowledgement for the parents. As a soccer parent myself, you appreciate that in many cases, this is the culmination of over ten years of supporting your son through all of the pick-ups, drop offs and games. So well done players and well done parents!
Congratulations and thank you to our seniors: Captain Mike DeFeo, Owen Bajrami, Erik Kryzanski, Mike Mauro, Sam Mena, Ronaldo Nieto, John Testa and Mark Testa.
