On November 12, 2025, the Morgan girls’ soccer team defeated Housatonic Valley Regional High School, 4-2, in the Semi-finals of the Class S state tournament at Newtown High School field.
Coming into the game, Housatonic was 3 seed with a regular season record of 13-3 and an overall record of 16-4. In the postseason, they had a first-round bye in the Berkshire League Conference tournament, beat Terryville 5-2, and lost to Nonnewaug in the Championship, losing their league title from 2024. In the State Tournament, they had a first-round bye and followed with a 4-3 win against Stafford and a 4-2 win against Coventry in the quarterfinals, leading them to the Semi-finals game.
Going into the game, Morgan was seeded at #10 with a regular season record of 10-6 and an overall record of 13-7. For the past four years, ‘21, ‘22, ‘23, ‘24, the Huskies have been the Shoreline Champions, but this year they failed to make it to the finals after a 4-0 win against Old Saybrook and a 2-1 loss against East Hampton in the quarterfinals.
Nora Winsor, the Huskies’ team manager, who had to sit out the season due to a lacrosse injury, said that “our defense is strong and how we play with almost like a string-attached, but a weakness is that we get frantic at times and just need to calm down sometimes.”
In the state tournament, Morgan had a first-round bye as well and beat St. Paul Catholic 5-2, and Valley Regional High School 2-1 after double overtime, winning 4-2 in PK kicks. The Huskies were hoping to make it back to the championship after losing to Coginchaug in PKs last year.
Captain #22 Riley Febroriello said, “I think our biggest strength is how close we are, and we’ve been bonding a lot, and playing together for so long, and have great chemistry, and we have been working on playing every single part of the game together.”
Both teams came out strong, but the Huskies came out stronger, and about 12 minutes in sophomore #5 Mia Zhiminaicela shot from outside the 18, with the goalie off her line out to the side and placed it right in the back of the
net, right past the goalie to make the score 1-0 with the Huskies in the lead. “I feel awesome, absolutely electric,” Zhiminaicela said.
For the rest of the half, both teams were able to hold each other’s offense from scoring a goal. The half ended 1-0 Huskies.
Morgan was eager to get back out there and start the second half off strong, and they did just that. Four minutes into the second half, senior #4 Kate Gardner had a through ball right to senior #10 Sadie Passante, and she chipped it over the goalie right into the net, delivering the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Only about a minute later, the Huskies had a corner kick, and Passante headed it right into the goal. With still 35 minutes left in the game, the Huskies were leading 3-0.
About 10 minutes later, Housatonic ran the ball up the field on a fast break and scored with a close shot from the side with 26:25 left in the game, still trailing, 3-1.
Another ten minutes later, Zhiminaicela received the ball back from a Housy goal kick and sent a ball across into the box, assisting Kate Garner with an amazing shot from right inside the 18, with 16:43 left. The score now 4-1.
The Huskies held off their offense til a defensive foul was called inside of the 18. Housatonic took a PK kick and goalie junior #00 Saoirse O’Beirn, diving the right way, just missed the shot, putting the Mountaineers with another goal with 12:39 left in the game.
Fortunately, the Morgan Huskies were able to stay composed and ended with a 4-2 win, getting sent back to the Class S State Finals against #9 Old Saybrook on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at Hartford Athletics, Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut.
“It was such an amazing game,” said Gardner, “Everyone had so much energy, we all had each other’s backs, and the student section was electric.”
Heading forward, Old Saybrook and Morgan are 1-1, Morgan losing 2-0 the first time and winning 4-0 the second time. It will definitely
be an interesting matchup, knowing their season history and that they both represent the Shoreline conference. The past two years, the State Champion has been from the Shoreline Conference, and it will be no different this year.
Passante said, I’m excited to go back to the state championship and get our revenge. We’ve played them [Old Saybrook], we know them. We’re going to stick to our game plan, expose their weaknesses, and keep working.”
This is only the third time ever that they have made it to the Class S State Championship and have yet to win. Will this finally be their year?
