West Hartford’s Conard High School defeated New Britain in boys soccer on Nov. 2, and heads to the second round of the Class LL tournament.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

In a game that at times looked like an episode of “Survivor” or even “Squid Games,” Conard goalie Joe O’Connell was up to “The Challenge,” stopping Niko Kolc’s second half penalty kick to preserve the 1-0 win for the Red Wolves in the Class LL tournament opener over New Britain.

The physical play got out of hand early and continued throughout the game with both sides getting away with as much as they could. That included players being undercut when they went up for high balls, so much short pulling it looked like a tug of war at times, not to mention tripping and late kicks to the ankles well after the play. Despite the overly physical play, neither official seemed willing to reach into their pocket for a yellow or red card until the game was out of control in the second half.

In the early going, Conard had some good chances to get on the board first. Michael Guildner outraced the Golden Hurricanes goalie to a longball in the box. His shot from about 15 yards out seemed to be heading into the net before defender Julio Flores raced back to clear the ball before it crossed the line. Six minutes later it would be Flores again, this time sliding in to block Lucas Hartland’s shot on goal.

Hartland had another great chance when he reacted first to a through ball that froze the New Britain back line. Goalie Saquib Salman was coming off his line to challenge and deflected Hartland’s shot wide with his foot.

All this was happening while lots of jersey pulling and hard tackling was happening. It all led to a dangerous play when Conard’s Patrick Guildner ran forward to clear a ball, only to be flipped in the air, landing flat on his back and head on the turf. After being tended to on the field, he had to leave the game, but no card was issued by either referee. Just over a minute later ,Conard had another good scoring chance snuffed out when Salman managed to grab a chip from Max Simmons. Conard was using its wings to try and move the ball downfield and also looking for through balls up the middle to penetrate the defense. It paid off for the Red Wolves with just over 7:30 to go in the first half. Michael Guildner was challenging a New Britain defender for possession when the defender tried to play it back to Salman. Guildner beat him to the ball and slid it into the net to give Conard the 1-0 lead.

Following the intermission, New Britain came up with more fire and moved the ball consistently into Conard’s end. Just 6:15 in, Patrick Guildner was called for taking down a New Britain striker in the box and the penalty was awarded. Kolc lined up his shot, and O’Connell waited in goal and as the ball headed to his left, the senior goalie dove across the net and made the save.

Both O’Connell and his coach for the day, Nicole Niland, were confident that he would make the save. “I knew had it,” Niland said. “We did penalty kick drills all week, so I was full of confidence.”

For O’Connell it was not a guess where Kolc was going that led to the save. “I read his hips and when he opened them up I knew where he was going,” he said.

With just under 26 minutes left in regulation, the game’s first card was issued when Stalyn Evas of New Britain was given a yellow for his tackle from behind. Off the restart, Alex Kim managed to slip a through ball that Hartland ran onto, but once again Salman was there for the save. As the clock wound down the physical play continued –  there were more whistles, but no cards until there was just over six minutes to play.

With Conard working the sidelines to drain the clock, New Britain was forced to concede several  throw ins and defend a lot of possession by the Red Wolves. When a Conard player had his legs kicked out from under him by a defender, the referee blew his whistle and signaled that he was going to issue a call. Hartland, who was not the player involved, was given a yellow card for dissent and then a red for continuing with the official. With Conard now playing down a man for the rest of the game, the backline of Brendan Murphy, Patrick Guildner, George Musto, and Jack Clayton continued their stellar work in front of O’Connell.

“They are very strong,” said O’Connell of his backs. “All I really have to do is organize them.”

Almost fittingly for the game there was one last incident that saw a foul, some pushing, and more yellow cards. Cam Robinson was taken down from behind near mid field and was laying on the turf. The referee signaled for a yellow card, but before he could pull it out of his pocket, a New Britain player kicked the ball into the head of the prone Robinson, prompting his teammates to come to his defense. When the smoke cleared there were yellow cards for each side, and on the restart, Conard managed to burn off all but :09 of the clock, leaving New Britain no time to get a serious chance on goal.

“It was a tough game but we played hard,” Niland said. “I’m happy for the boys that they get to play another game. But I was disappointed by our loss of composure.”

Game Notes:

Conard Head Coach Greg Smedberg was not on the sidelines for his team’s return to the state tournament. He was getting married on Saturday. Plans were made a year ago when he was the head freshman soccer coach at Hall. Conard tried to move the game to Friday – but that was the Diwali holiday – or Sunday, but the CIAC said no. Niland made sure to wish Smedberg well after the win.

The No. 10 seeded Red Wolves next meet No. 7 Farmington on Tuesday in the second round. In two head-to-head matchups during the season, Farmington won 2-0 and the two sides played to a scoreless draw.

The Hall boys soccer team opened the Class LL tournament away, with an impressive 5-1 win over 16-seed Enfield on Saturday. The reward for the defending state champs is to play No. 1 and unbeaten (15-01-1) Notre Dame West Haven on the road Tuesday.

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