West Hartford’s Conard and Hall high school boys soccer teams met for the annual regular season finale Tuesday night.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Cam Robinson scored with 21 minutes to play to give Conard a hard-fought 2-1 win over defending Class LL state champs Hall in the regular season finale for both boys soccer teams.

The play was set up when a long sideline throw-in was played into the Hall box and Robinson found himself right in front of Titans goalie Quinn Freeman. Robinson managed to slot it high over Freeman to set off a wild celebration by his teammates.

“It is surreal to end with 10 wins,” said first year Red Wolves head coach Craig Smedberg. “This was a statement. A battle, and a great example of the high level of soccer in West Hartford.” Smedberg was part of Hall coach Zeke Seguro’s championship staff last year before taking over the Conard program when Becca Lewis stepped down after taking an administrator job in another school district. “I’m privileged to have a talented group that I inherited from Becca.”

For Hall (8-5-2), the early part of the opening half showed a lot of promise. They outplayed and out-possessed Conard, twice seeing shots off free kicks go wide.

All season Conard has relied on its defense to help put the team in a spot to counterattack and score one of their own. Jules Capone, Patrick Guildner, and goalie Joe O’Connell led the way against Hall, shutting down attacks by playing well positioned, calm defense.

The Red Wolves got the game’s first goal off a set play that saw Michael Guildner launch a well-placed corner kick right into the center of the box. Lucas Hartland managed to get above the defenders and banged home the header past Freeman.

It capped off a five-minute period that saw Conard switch up the script and control the ball in the attacking zone. It all began when Michael Guildner dummied a ball that traveled towards the Hall box. Teammate Ray Hilario raced past defenders to the ball, setting off a series of plays that saw Hall defenders have to continually knock the ball out of play, giving up throw-ins and corner kicks.

The Conard duo of Guildner and Hartland nearly doubled their lead with 5:54 to go in the first. Guildner let go of a ball from distance that was on Freeman’s net, and Hartland came flying in, sliding in front of Freeman, but not before the senior keeper managed to secure the ball.

The visitors had another chance to even things up when Fareed Abu Rabia sent John Hunt through the defense. But Hunt’s cross was deflected away by Conard’s defense and the Red Wolves carried the 1-0 lead into intermission.

“The first half was pretty even,” said Hall’s Seguro.

The Titans came out fast in the second half and just over one minute in Hunt had a 1-on-1 chance against O’Connell, but the shot went wide. One minute later, Hall put it all together and scored a beautiful goal when Freddie Wright put the perfect touch on a shot from 25 yards out and deposited it over the outstretched hand of O’Connell.

Both sides had chances to break the time but neither could finish the play. One of Conard’s best chances came about halfway through when Freeman pulled down a Conard forward inside the box, giving the Red Wolves a penalty kick. Patrick Guildner stepped up to the spot, but overpowered his shot above the crossbar and Hall survived.

Freeman would come up big with just under 16 minutes to play when Arinze Oteka touched the ball past a Titans defender and headed in on goal. Freeman charged out and took on Oteka’s shot as he went low, and the goalie covered the rebound. Then, 3:30 later, it would be Robinson scoring the deciding goal.

“We had them in the second half,” said Hall’s Seguro. “We gave up a soft throw in. They scored on two set plays. We still make small mistakes, but can’t do that going forward,” he added.

“This team is really feeling a togetherness right now,” Smedberg said of his team. “I’ve been preaching to them all year to believe in yourself, believe in the team and you can do anything.”

Even with the loss, Seguro likes where his team is heading into the post-season. “We’re alright where we are. You want games like this. It won’ be easy (moving ahead), but I’m excited.”

Neither team qualified for the CCC tournament but both will be in the Class LL tournament when it begins with Conard finishing 10th in LL and Hall coming in at 17th. Each team will have to wait for the CIAC to announce pairings for the tournament, which begins next week.

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