Sports
Boys Soccer Loses to Hamden, Ties Lyman Hall
Coach Mike Marchitto: "We played a sloppy first half and had lots of trouble possessing the ball."
Last week was another tough week for the Amity boys soccer team. Coach Mike Marchitto’s booters were edged by Cheshire 2-1 and then had to settle for a scoreless tie with Lyman Hall. Following those Southern Connecticut Conference matches, the Spartans have a 3-3-5 record (1-2-3 against Housatonic Division opponents.) With 5 games left in its regular season, Amity must win one or tie two games to qualify for the state tournament.
With 71 minutes and 47 seconds gone, Amity and Cheshire were deadlocked at 1-1. There was a traffic jam in the box. Four Amity defenders and the Rams’ Arman Karbassion were battling for control of the ball. Karbassion won the battle and knocked the ball across the goal line.
“It was an upsetting way to lose,” Marchitto said. Our guys fought hard for the ball but unfortunately, their guy came out with it and scored the winning goal against our four defenders.”
Find out what's happening in Bethwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Rams opened the scoring when Joe Phillips came in from the weak side post and cashed in a cross at 35:20. Cheshire hung onto that 1-0 lead until Joe Guerra deflected home Jess DiPietro’s cross at 58:11.
According to Marchitto, “We played a sloppy first half and had lots of trouble possessing the ball. We did settle down in the second half but never really looked comfortable. At times, we tended to panic instead of playing at our pace. We need to relax and let the game come to us.”
Find out what's happening in Bethwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Rams outshot Amity 9-7. Spartan netminder Noah Safian recorded seven saves.
Marchitto went on to label the 0-0 stand off with Lyman Hall “disappointing.”
He added, “We played better but not our best. For the most part, we controlled the game but once again, we could not finish. We need to calm down and play our game.”
Amity outshot Lyman Hall 13-5 and Safian made five saves.
Following Tuesday’s 3:45 p.m. visit to Sheehan, the Spartans visit Shelton Wednesday at 7 p.m. Marchitto noted that since both games will be played on artificial turf, he expected them to be played at a much faster pace than when his team plays on natural grass.
