Conard beat Southington on Tuesday evening in a CCC boys lacrosse semifinal game in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Ronni Newton

An intense Central Connecticut Conference semifinal between Conard and Southington was tied six times, before the Red Wolves emerged victorious about two minutes into the first overtime period, beating the Blue Knights 11-10 Tuesday night at Robert McKee Stadium in West Hartford.

“We like to make it interesting, apparently,” Conard head coach Matt Cersosimo said with a chuckle when asked if the close game was nerve-wracking. But he said it was exactly the game for which he prepared the team.

“We told the kids that for that for the past week, expect a one-goal game, so that when it is, no one’s surprised, no one’s freaking out. We’re just keeping our composure, keeping our mindset right, and they did that,” Cersosimo said.

This was the first overtime game of the season for Conard, and although they had defeated Southington 15-8 on May 10, “We knew this was going to be a different story,” Cersosimo said. He expected that Southington, with an 11-4 record heading into the tournament, would want to prove themselves. “So that’s why the message all week was expect the one-goal game,” he said.

The first two quarters ended in ties, 2-2 and then 5-5.

The game was scoreless for the first five minutes, before Southington’s Owen Doty scored, assisted by Riley Doty. Less than a minute later it was Conard senior captain Luke Shaffer who answered with the first of his five goals, tying things at 1.

With 4:51 left in the first period, it was Shaffer again, this time assisted by junior Brady Cersosimo, and Conard was ahead 2-1. Just 17 seconds before the first period expired, however, Southington’s Angelo Fioriello found the back of the net.

Fioriello started the second quarter where he left off in the first, scoring again with 11:38 left, this time assisted by Will Flanigan. With 9:22 left, Brady Cersosimo scored his first goal of the game, assisted by Shaffer, and it was tied 3-3 for 21 seconds – before Owen Doty scored again putting Southington ahead.

With 6:26 left in the second, Torin McGoldrick tied things up for Conard, assisted by Shaffer. Nyzaiah Smith scored for Southington with 3:54 left in the quarter, but Conard tied the game just 21 second before halftime when Nick Katsaros scored for Conard with an assist by Shaffer.

The teams traded possessions back and forth to start the second half, but with 8:20 left in the third quarter, it was Shaffer scoring again for Conard, with an assist from McGoldrick. Shaffer got his fourth goal about two minutes later with another assist from McGoldrick, and Conard had its first two-goal lead.

Southington answered quickly, with Flanigan scoring to narrow the Red Wolves’ lead, but a minute later it was Brady Cersosimo finding the back of the net, assisted by Liam Alver, and Conard led 8-6.

Conard was on a roll, with Ben Walsh and and Ryan Barnum scoring – both assisted by Cersosimo – pushing the lead to four, but Southington wouldn’t give up. With 57 seconds left in the third quarter, Fioriello scored his third, and then assisted on a goal by Owen Doty with :10 left on the clock.

The Blue Knights struck first in the final quarter when with 5:21 left it was Fioriello again with an assist by Flanigan narrowing Conard’s lead to one, 10-9.

Conard kept pushing, but couldn’t score and called a timeout with 1:57 left. Both teams maintained the intensity, and it was Southington tying it up at 10 with 1:24 left on a goal by Flanigan, heading the game into sudden death overtime.

Southington received a penalty for what Matt Cersosimo thought was a slash to a Conard player’s head just over a minute into overtime. “So we were able to use that man up,” he said. And just as the one-minute penalty was almost killed off, “We found an opening.”

It was Shaffer who took advantage of that opening, scoring his fifth goal, with Brady Cersosimo assisting.

Matt Cersisomo remarked after the game that Shaffer did a great job, with five goals and three assists. “I thought Matt Russo played really well in goal. I thought our defense around him played really well,” said Cersosimo. “So it was definitely a full team effort when you look at our offense, our defense, and then all the transition from our clears and rides – it was just a full end-to-end, side-to-side team effort.”

Brady Cersosimo ended the game with two goals and four assists, McGoldrick, Katsaros, Walsh, and Barnum each had a goal apiece, and Alver had an assist.

Conard, ranked No. 4 in Class L, was 13-3 heading into the postseason. Their only losses came against Daniel Hand, Cheshire, and Glastonbury. The Red Wolves have a chance to avenge the loss to the Guardians, No. 7 in Class LL, for the CCC Championship on Thursday night. Glastonbury defeated Conard 12-3 on May 19.

Thursday’s CCC final will begin at 6:30 p.m.

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