On a cold Wednesday night in November, the Morgan boys soccer went to Newington High School to play Shepaug Valley, It was the semi-final game in the state tournament and we lost 3-1. 

Shepuag Valley scored the first two goals in only 10 minutes. The Morgan boys had to put in a goal to keep this game alive. Morgan boys missed several big opportunities to keep the game alive in the first half. Shepaug Valley was getting extremely physical and started drawing many yellow cards. Shepaug Valley kept the score 2-0 leading into the second half. 

Going into the second half, Morgan had low energy and needed a change to fix the game’s outcome. Morgan came out hot and started taking good shots on the net, but Shepaugs goalie was stopping everything.

 Morgan had a good fast break with junior Andrew Randi taking the shot on net, but missing the opportunity Morgan lost much of their momentum in the second half after Shepaug Valley put another goal in making the game 3-0. 

Shepaug Valley was a lot bigger than Morgan and was a lot more physical than they were used to. Shepuag Valley had a lot of energy on the field and in the stands. With only 6 minutes to go in the game junior captain Johnny Gutierrez scored the final goal to make the score 3-1.

 Senior Cinar Yucel #7 after the game said, “ We all came out scared and didn’t play our game. We didn’t have enough confidence at the start of the game. Shepaug Valley scored two goals in the first ten minutes then everybody started to put their heads down. After they put in two goals, we started playing with more confidence and taking some risks, but Shepaug was defending well and kept attacking us until they eventually scored again.”  

Senior captain Michael Fusco, # 2, said, “Fear led us to a loss. In the past years for soccer, we never made it this far into states. We had the potential to win but were scared and lacked confidence after they got a quick lead.” 

Even the traditional loud and supportive dog pound (student section) was off that night. The entire dog pound was also late to the game because of traffic. They all showed up five minutes before halftime. The fan bus hit traffic and was late, which didn’t help the team’s energy. The dog pound was quiet, and the other team had a much bigger student section than we did. Shepaug Valley had the most energy all around on and off the field.