It’s been 35 years since Hall boys soccer has made it to a state championship. But on Wednesday evening at Veteran’s Stadium the streak ended as the Warriors put an end to East Hartford’s magical run with a 2-0 Class LL semifinal win.
“It feels absolutely great,” Hall coach Zeke Seguro said. “This is my seventh final four and we finally got over the hump.”
Hall (18-1-1) will face CCC-rival Glastonbury on Saturday in the LL final, after the Tomahawks rolled past Pomperaug-Southbury in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw back on Oct. 16 and neither has allowed a goal this postseason.
“We know what we have,” Seguro said. “Glastonbury is a great team and we played them earlier in the year. We’re just happy to have the opportunity to play one more game.”
Hall controlled most of the first half, although East Hartford did have its chances. The Warriors didn’t break through, however, until 11:39 was left in the first. Senior Charlie Cubbage fed classmate Matt Azia, who poked the ball home after it had pinballed around in front of the net.
“Us being the [Hall] team to make the finals is surreal,” Cubbage said. “I’m just very grateful. First week of preseason this was our goal. It was win or bust this year. We knew we had what it takes to win states and that’s what we hope to do.”
Hall would add to its lead with 25:04 to play in the second half on a gorgeous header by Enrik Pretashi that cleared the goalie and gave Hall the two-goal advantage. The lead saw the Warriors settle back defensively, which would allow the Hornets to pressure in the final 10 minutes.
While they didn’t score and ultimately had a magical postseason run end in disappointment, East Hartford coach Mike Vendetti wasn’t upset with what the Hornets accomplished this season.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. I’m real happy we made it this far,” East Hartford coach Mike Vendetti said. “We were hoping for the storybook ending. We got some breaks and in the postseason it takes some luck. Today we didn’t get those and we made some mistakes and it cost us.”
Glastonbury dominates
The eighth-seeded Tomahawks aren’t unfamiliar with what it takes to reach the championship but with a younger team this season, nothing was guaranteed. Despite that, it was youth that helped lead the way to a 5-0 win over No. 12 Pomperaug to reach a fifth title game in the past six years.
“We’ve just been trying to work hard and get better every day and just approach things the best way we can,” coach Mark Landers said. “We didn’t have the greatest of regular seasons but we learned a lot from our mistakes and we’ve come together at the right time to get to where we are right now.”
Sophomore Zach Gardner scored the first two goals of Glastonbury’s semifinal win and assisted on another. Senior Matt Cosentino added a goal as time was winding down in the first half, and junior Alec Hughes scored twice in the second half for Glastonbury (15-3-2).
“It’s big to get that first goal and get a little bit relaxed,” Landers said. “But the key was scoring with 30 seconds left in the half, that puts you in a good position right there. We didn’t relax at half but we did talk about needing to come out strong and play for 40 more minutes.”
Pomperaug (11-6) looked solid early with a couple chances on goal off corner kicks, including a breakaway opportunity by Jack O’Brien that was broken up with a nice sliding tackle by senior Andrew Sullivan. Glastonbury would settle down after that and it wasn’t long before the offense found its rhythm and the floodgates opened.
“We moved him back to defense right after we lost to Farmington and said we’re going to batten down the hatches back there, led by him,” Landers said. “His leadership has been amazing back there, his communication is fantastic. And you just know he can make plays like that.”
