The Hall boys soccer team beat Northwest Catholic, 8-0, on senior night in West Hartford on Thursday.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

It was a night of celebration for the Hall boys soccer team as they honored their seniors before their matchup with Northwest Catholic on Thursday.

After the ceremonies, coach Zeke Seguro started several seniors, and the night ended with the Titans securing a lopsided 8-0 shutout win. The score of the game allowed both sides to clear their benches, and many of the players that don’t get to see a lot of action had their chance to play meaningful minutes.

“These players are important,” Seguro said of the bench. “They play hard every day at practice, pushing the starters.”

A pair of seniors nearly connected for the game’s first goal less than two minutes in. Fareed Abu Rabia sent a crossing ball into the box that Northwest goalie Simon Miller could not secure. Seamus Deveney was right there but his right-footed shot went high over the crossbar.

Hall brought in the rest of its usual starting lineup 10-and-a-half minutes in, and within 2:30 they scored. Diego Lemes – who dominated the right side of the field all night – carried the ball across the low part of the box and squared the ball to John Hunt who one-touched it into the net.

The Lions had few chances in the first half to threaten the Hall net, playing most of the opening 40 minutes defending their half of the field. With 18:30 to play, however, Northwest had one of its better chances on offense, but Michael Nicholas’ shot went wide of the far post.

Forty-one seconds after that chance, it was Hall getting its second score. This time it was Freddie Wright driving home a shot from about 30 yards out that Miller had no chance on. Less than a minute later it was Lemes finishing the play as Shuba Rai came into the box on the right and sent the cross to the unmarked teammate who rammed it home.

Then, with just under nine minutes to play in the first, it was Deveney and John Hunt combining on the cross and goal to make it 4-0. Three of the four goals that Hall scored were off shots that were within five feet of the net, with the exception being Wright’s strike.

Northwest Catholic came out stronger to start the second half, putting together some good combinations and spending more time in the offensive zone, but they could not find the back of the net. After just missing a on-timer that went just over the crossbar, Hall picked up their scoring run 11:29 into the second half.

Once again it was Hunt, who was strong throughout the midfield and up front, who raced down the field from about 40 yards away from the goal, shielding a Lions defender the whole way. As he closed in on goal, the new Lions goalie came off his line, but Hunt hit a perfectly placed ball that headed to the top part of the far side of the net and it was 5-0.

With 25 minutes to play in the game, Hall took off the 11 players on the field, but the Titans kept up the pressure at both ends of the pitch. Their first, best chance came when Rai let a hard shot go from distance that the goalie could not initially control but covered in front of a Hall attacker. Then, 120 seconds later, it was the Titans making no mistake as Aiden Winiarski dropped in a cross from the far side of the box that fell to a trio of unmarked teammates.

Grady Doyle got the touch on it, and it was 6-0 Hall. Senior Yuri Bevilaqua scored the first of his two goals to make it 7-0, and then saw goalie Dror Ohad make a huge save to keep the clean sheet. Northwest got a close-in shot that was ticketed for the top of the net, but Ohad went up high and deflected it over the net.

Bevilaqua closed out the scoring after the ball was sent into the box one more time for Hall, and he made no mistake, drawing a huge cheer from his teammates on the bench. “At the varsity level we have goals and we have to go with the top of the depth chart,” Seguro said after the game. “As a coach I hoped do more of it [playing subs]. They deserve it.”

Hall is now 8-4-2 in the season and Seguro is hoping to get a few games in the CCC tournament before his team heads to the state tournament. “We have got to be more consistent. We’ve had some moments where we proved we could do something.”

The defending state champs are now sitting in 15h place overall in Class LL. They wrap the regular season on Tuesday when they meet crosstown rival Conard. The Red Wolves are currently 10th in Class LL, with an impressive 9-4-2 record after a tie with always-tough Farmington on Thursday.

Greg Smedberg, a former coach on Seguro’s staff, is in his first season leading Conard. “That game with Conard is going to tell us a lot about ourselves,” said Seguro.

For Northwest Catholic, the game was the 12th loss on the season with just a single win. The Lions have been shut out in nine of the losses, having scored just once in the last 10. They will wrap their season at home when they host Southington (4-7-3) on Tuesday.

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