Amity Boys Soccer Ties Cheshire in Close Contest

For 72 minutes, the Amity and Cheshire boys soccer teams were locked in a scoreless defensive tussle Wednesday afternoon in Cheshire. With eight minutes left in the Southern Connecticut Coinference—Housatonic Division contest, Cameron Luth broke loose on a run down the right side of the field. He knocked a cross toward the right side goal post that was headed home by Joe Guerra.

“It was a picture perfect play—the kind you would see on a highlight reel,” Amity Coach Mike Marchitto said.

The Spartans held onto that 1-0 until 1:30 was left in the contest. At that point, one of the Amity defenders on the left side lost his focus and concentration when he looked to see how much time was left to play. Ram forward Nick Berardi took advantage of that momentary lapse to race by the Amity defense and toward the goal. He let fly a cross that the Spartans failed to jump up and block. The result was, it tucked itself just inside the far post for the game-tying score.

According to Marchitto, “It was a lucky goal. It wasn’t even a real shot. In all honesty, I’d call it a bad cross that fortunately for Cheshire, somehow sailed into the net.”

For the most part, the game was a tight defensive battle.

At the 62 minute mark of the second half, Guerra broke free, charged on goal and let fly a blast that was just tipped to the side of the net by Cheshire goalie Nick Velleca. Later in the second half, Amity netminder Noah Safian came up with an equally spectacular save to rob the Rams of a potential score.

Marchitto added, “We’re starting to develop some rhythm to our game and  that enables us to put some pressure on the opposing team. We just need to be a little quicker in our attack mode so we can make our offensive move before the defense closes down on us. Both teams worked hard throughout the match, especially on defense. Defensively, I thought we kept a good shape for most of the match. Unfortunately, one of our guys started thinking about the clock at the wrong time and that cost us a goal.”

Each team took seven shots and each goalie made six saves.

Amity takes its 1-1-2 record to Lyman Hall Friday for a 3:45 p.m. Housy contest.