July 29, 2011
Wilton boys race to Connecticut championship
by Braden Campbell/
On May 3, after a two-goal loss to league rival New Canaan, the Wilton boys had a 4-5 record and looked like they would be lucky just to make the postseason.
In the next month, however, they showed that luck would have nothing to do with making the postseason and dominating it.
On June 1, the Warriors — winners of eight of their previous nine games — opened the 2011 Connecticut Class M tournament with a 19-4 drubbing of Windsor (10-8). Three days later, they cruised past Guilford (10-10) with a 13-1 win. Even dreaded Darien (19-3), Wilton’s semifinal opponent, could do little to derail the Warriors’ championship train. After a 12-2 rout of New Canaan in the final, Wilton (16-6) had its 21st title in hand.
All told, the Warriors raged through the tourney with a 55-10 scoring tilt in their favor.
“They really did it on a level that was certainly beyond even what I thought we would do,” head coach John Wiseman said.
Wiseman credits senior leadership — which the 2011 Warriors squad had in spades — with earning the trophy. Goalie Sam Somers and close defenders Alex Hayes and Pat Holland were a brick wall on the defensive end, and shorties Mike Serpa, Matt Dunn, Connor Melillo and Mike Francia could not be denied on offense.
The Warriors’ win ended a streak of six consecutive championships by Darien, which looked ready to repeat at the tournament’s outset after a 17-2 opening win over Notre Dame-West Haven (7-9). However, junior attackman Case Matheis, the top offensive player in the state, was sidelined early in the Rams’ 10-5 quarterfinal win over Fairfield-Ludlowe (10-8).
The Blue Wave had pinned Wilton’s only stretch-run loss on the Warriors in a 9-6 FCIAC semifinal, and took the conference title in a 10-7 win over Ridgefield (18-5), the eventual Class L winner.
Ridgefield’s first title in a decade came on the strength of an 11-10 thriller over Fairfield Prep (18-5). The Tigers were on the wrong side of a 6-1 score after the first quarter, but they righted the ship in the next quarter and entered the half down by just a goal.
Sean Wilkinson’s goal with just 14.5 seconds left in regulation put the Tigers ahead for the first time of the night, and they held on for the win.
Injury was a factor in the Class L game as well, as the Fairfield Prep’s goalkeeper Mike Seelye was pulled early in the second quarter after taking a shot to the chest. The junior was spitting up blood, according to Prep coach Chris Smalkais.
The runner-up finish was the second in as many years for the Jesuits, who lost to Cheshire, also by a single goal, in last year’s final. Cheshire (11-10) fell far short of its 2010 title prowess, bowing out of the tournament in the first round in a 13-10 loss to Newtown
The Class S title contest was a low-scoring affair, though it certainly matched its bigger-conference counterparts for theatrics. St. Joseph (12-8) took its second title in three years with a 6-5 win over Joel Barlow (16-5).
The Cadets led by three after one quarter, but let Joel Barlow back in with a weak second. The teams played it tight through the rest of the game before St. Joseph goalie Matt Mohr made a game-preserving save with just a few seconds to go.
The win brought a happy ending to St. Joseph’s Cinderella story. The Cadets were the tournament low-seed, having backed into the postseason with an 8-8 regular-season record.
On the girls’ side, Greenwich (15-5), last year’s runner-up, got the job done in 2011 and took the Class L girls title in a nail-biter over Glastonbury (15-5).
With just under 12 minutes left on the clock, the Cardinals had a comfortable five-goal lead and looked like they would cruise to the title. Glastonbury, though, had other ideas.
The Tomahawks scored four unanswered goals to cut the deficit to one with just over a minute to play. Greenwich managed to hold on, however, winning the draw and scoring an insurance goal to take a 12-10 win.
In Class M, Darien’s girls (15-8) had no trouble taking out Daniel Hand (19-4), returning to the top after a misstep last year. The Blue Wave earned their fourth title in five years, tripling up Daniel Hand, 15-5.
Like Wilton in the boys’ game, Darien’s girls earned their title by overcoming a rough start, struggling with seven losses in their first 11 games before righting their ship.
New Canaan (13-8), the reigning champ, gave Darien its toughest contest of the tournament, losing by just a pair in a hard-fought, 9-7 semifinal.
The 2011 season marked the first time that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Association had the same three-tiered bracket structure for girls as it uses for boys.
The inaugural Class S girls’ tournament went to Weston (17-6), which won its first title with a hard-fought 8-7 win over Granby Memorial (14-6).
The fifth-seeded Trojans pulled a 12-9 upset of the heavy tournament favorite — top-seeded Haddam-Killingworth (16-2) — to reach the final.
This article originally appeared in the July 2011 issue of New England Lacrosse Journal.
Braden Campbell can be reached at feedback@laxjournal.com
