In the past 5 years the Morgan Soccer teams have combined for 4 Shoreline Conference Championships. Both teams practice daily and face hard schedules throughout the season. Both teams also have stand out players that help the teams to victory.

Girls soccer:

The Morgan girls soccer team currently holds the title of Shoreline Champions for 3 years in a row and is coached by Head Coach Jonathan Harder and assisted by Assistant Coach Bill Lindsay and J.V. Coach Chris Passante. Their current record is 12-4-2, as opposed to last year, when they ended the season with a record of 10-2-4.

The girls soccer team has exceeded expectations and won games they weren’t necessarily expected to win. On September 3rd, they beat Cromwell 2-1, which was the only team they lost to last year. Cromwell’s current record is 10-4-2, so both teams are almost equal in skill. On October 2nd, the girls beat Coginchaug with a final score of 7-2. Although the score makes it sound like it was an easy game, it was not supposed to be. Coginchaug has a current record of 11-2-3. Last year, the girls tied with Coginchaug with a score of 2-2, so there was a huge improvement regarding the score.

One of the hardest games for the girls was the game against Old Lyme. They played them on October 7th, and beat them 1-0. Last year, the girls played them 3 different times. The first time in the regular season and won 3-2. The second time they played them, they won 5-0. This was the shoreline finals and many players thought it was a sign for the team’s late coach, Stephen Sullivan, better known as Coach Sully. The girls won by five goals and Sully was five letters long. The third time they played them, they lost 0-1 in the first round of the State Tournament. It was a devastating loss for them, and they learned to not underestimate any team, even if they’ve been them before.

Junior Riley Febboriello has been a stand-out player this season, taking the most shots with a total of 18 shots. She has been on the team for three years and playing for Ginga, a select premier soccer team, for three years and played for Connecticut Rush Select before that.

“In the beginning of the summer, I feel like we all got really close and hung out more as friends than as teammates, and now we all have really good connections on and off the field,” said Riley. “I think that this year we have the hardest schedule that we have the past two years I’ve been at Morgan, and I think that we’re really making a statement. We have a really good chance of going far in the state tournament this year.”

Senior, Liliana Luciani is a captain alongside Senior Rachel Spaziano. She has been on the team for 4 years and is one of the most important players on the team. Liliana is very involved with the soccer team Liliana said, “We like to do a lot of things outside of practice and not soccer related. For example, we do pasta parties, and we have an annual Spikeball tournament before the season starts. We like to have team talks at the end of practices just to connect more as a team, normally it’s just about something funny to get to know each other. I think because our team chemistry is so strong, it makes us very successful. I look forward to the post season because I know we will be making it far and doing well.”

Boys soccer:

Even though the Morgan boys soccer team hasn’t won the Shoreline Conference since 2021, the team has still been successful in conference and state tournaments. So far, coach Ross Demay has the team sitting at a 11-2-4 record, first in the Shoreline in front of East Hampton (2nd place) and Old Saybrook (3rd place).

In the last 10 years, the Boys Soccer team hasn’t had a record under .500. The best year out of those 10 was 2017. That year, the team finished with an 18-3-1 record and won the state tournament. That win was the first time the team had won states since 1964 – shutting out Somers 4-0.

When the boys played East Hampton on September 30, it was a big game both last year and this year. East Hampton has a current record of 13-1-3 and when they played the Morgan Huskies, tied 3-3. Last year, East Hampton ended the game winning with a score of 3-2. East Hampton was one of the most attended soccer games last year.

This year, when the boys played East Lyme, the game ended in a tie, with the final score being 3-3. East Lyme is 12-2-2 this year, and last year when the boys played them they lost 1-4. The score difference was seen as a victory for the Morgan team and shows the improvement from last year to this year. Many students who attended both games remember the turn-out of the game last year and were excited to have tied them and thought it was impressive.

The game against Cromwell was supposed to be a hard game, but the boys ended up dominating the game by 3-0. Last year, Cromwell was one of their hardest games, and the ending score was 0-0. Both teams were fairly even last year, but this year Cromwell has significantly decreased in skill level. Similar to Cromwell, one more eye-opening win was against Old Lyme. The team beat Old Lyme 7-0. From Morgan, Senior Nate Kinser scored three goals, Sophomore Esteban Orozco scored one goal, Junior Andrew Randi had one goal and Junior Captain Johnny Gutierrez had two goals.

Stand Out Players:

A key to the team’s success this year is the limited number of goals they are giving up. Junior goalie Liam Totten has been the goalie for 3 years now. Liam is also a junior captain this year and he is sponsored by SET GK.

Junior Sadie Passante has 14 goals this year and is the leading goal scorer. She has been on varsity all 3 years and has been playing for Rush Select for 9 years. Sadie plays center midfield for Morgan and Rush. She has already exceeded her goals scored last year, 12 goals, and still has 3 more in season games. Sadie received athlete of the week for the week of 10/14.

Both teams are working hard to continue making a name for themselves in the Shoreline and State tournaments. The next game for the Morgan girls team is Saturday, October 26th against Coginchaug at Indian River Turf. The next game for the Boys team is Sunday, October 27th against Old Saybrook at Indian River Turf. The girls will start at 6:00 p.m. and the boys will start at 4:00 p.m. and don’t forget to bring the spirit!