Morgan boys soccer fell short in the Shoreline Final on Tuesday, October 28, suffering a 1-4 defeat to Haddam Killingworth, who claimed their first conference title since 2020.
Before the game, the Shoreline Athletic Conference recognized its all-conference selections, honoring the top performers from across the league. Morgan made history, setting a new record with seven all-conference players, the most ever from a single team.
The Huskies’ four first team selections, seniors Jonny Gutierrez, Emiliano Miranda, and Liam Totten, along with junior Esteban Orozco, also marked a new conference record for the most first team recipients from one school in a single season. Seniors James Guzman and Wilson Rivera were named to the second team, while senior Austin LaMonaca received an honorable mention.
Gutierrez was awarded the Shoreline Conference Player of the Year, after finishing as the runner-up in the previous season. Totten, meanwhile, took home Goalie of the Year for a second consecutive year.
Thirty minutes after the awards wrapped up, it was time for kickoff.
The Cougars struck first less than a minute into the game, rocketing the ball into the top of the net from over 20 yards out.
Morgan responded eight minutes later, when senior Andrew Randi threaded a pass through traffic to freshman Rocco Passante. On his fifteenth birthday, Passante showed poise beyond his years, evading multiple defenders by cutting the ball over to his left foot, then sinking the shot to knot up the score at 1-1.
HK then regained the lead before halftime, and tacked on a pair of additional goals in the second half to secure the win.
The Huskies’ top scorer, Jonny Gutierrez was held scoreless for just the third time this season. Regardless if he was operating on or off the ball, he was constantly being swarmed by multiple HK defenders.
“They played us with a fourback, which means that they had four defenders, and that was so they could have somebody defending Jonny the whole time. And anytime Jonny touched the ball, the two center backs and the CDM (center defensive midfielder) would come in and guard him,” Totten explained. “The CDM would stay up top and make sure that Jonny wouldn’t go out towards the center of the field, and the defenders made sure that he just couldn’t turn on anything because he had people on his back, no matter what he was doing.”
When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard read Morgan: 1, HK: 4. “It didn’t really feel real,” Randi said. “We just didn’t play our brand of soccer.”
Overall, the season has been a tremendous success for the boys soccer program. Two weeks before the regular season concluded, the Huskies had already clinched first place in the conference standings for the first time since 2020. In that same week, Gutierrez became the team’s all-time leading scorer. Not to mention, the record breaking seven all-conference recipients, including the four on the first team.
Morgan was able to return to the Shoreline championship match for the first time since 2022, when the current senior class were just freshmen.
Since head coach Ross DeMay took over in 2013, Morgan has made the conference final a remarkable eight times, being crowned champion in half of those appearances.
The team will now turn their focus to the Class S state tournament, where they will be the seventh seed. They will face off against #26 Coginchaug on Friday, October 31, at 2:00 PM.
