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Darien’s ‘D’ Too Strong for Greenwich Soccer in FCIAC Semis

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Greenwich High School's Alejandro MacLean looks to get the ball past the Darien High defense during Monday's FCIAC semifinal game at Ludlowe's Taft Field. (Paul SIlverfarb photo
Greenwich High School’s Alejandro MacLean looks to get the ball past the Darien High defense during Monday’s FCIAC semifinal game at Ludlowe’s Taft Field. (Paul SIlverfarb photo

Darien High School was known throughout the regular season for its tough defense. That didn’t change during Monday’s FCIAC boys soccer semifinal game against Greenwich, High School as the Cardinals were defeated 1-0 Monday night at Fairfield Ludlowe’s Taft Field.

“We played the same way against Wilton, but we played against a more organized and better team in Darien,” Greenwich High School senior captain Zach Friedman said. “They are very tall and very effective in the back. They have a lot of height, so when you panic send the ball over the top, they just win it and send it right back. They are constantly down your throat and a very physical team wire to wire. They won’t make the little mistakes that other teams make. When they did, we weren’t able to capitalize on them today. This team bullied us around a little bit. We need to be more physical.”

Although Darien’s defense was top notch in the victory, Greenwich started the game strong and had a chance early on. With 33:07 to play in the half, Kevin Agudelo had a free kick from 30-yards out. However, the ball wasn’t able to get into the box, as Darien’s defense pushed it aside.

With 16 minutes left, it was Greenwich’s turn to shine on defense. With Darien threatening and in point-blank range of the net, the defensive group of Friedman, Matthijs Hoeskstra and Flaven Lolo each booted the away during the Blue Wave surge at the net.

Finally with 13:11 to play in the half, Darien scored the lone goal of the contest. After being taken down in the box by a Greenwich defender, the Blue Wave were awarded a penalty kick.

Up stepped Sean Gallagher, who charged the ball and booted it to the upper right corner of the net. Goalie Chris MacKay, who was stellar for Greenwich all game and came up with key saves, chose wrong and dove to the left.

“We played a lot better than we did two weeks ago,” said Greenwich High School head coach Kurt Putnam, talking about the team’s previous meeting with Darien in the regular season. “We have to piece together players to be in a particular team and I thought they went and equipped themselves really well. I was proud of them.”

Greenwich was on the attack in the second half. With 26:45 left in the game, Fermin Mendive was able to break free and charged towards the net on a breakaway. But the Darien goalie came out to deflect the ball just at the last moment.

A little over 10 minutes later, Big Red was on the attack again, as Alejandro MacLean passed the ball on a cross to Federico Irigoyen, but before he could take the shot, a Darien defender slid in front of the ball at the last second to deflect it out of harm’s way.

“It’s tough because we lost it on a penalty, which looked like it was a legitimate penalty,” Putnam said. “We caused them more problems in this game than we did in the first game. We knew that we were going to be under long throw ins, corner kicks and free kicks. We knew that. I thought we actually defended pretty well against them. In the first game we conceded three goals off of three corners. It’s a step in the right direction, obviously. It’s disappointing for them because I don’t think anybody could say that the better team won. Honestly I don’t think that was the case.”

With the loss, Greenwich High fell to 9-4-5 on the season, while Darien upped its overall record to 12-1-3.

“You’re always upset to lose and it’s very disappointing,” Friedman said. “However seven games ago, people were unsure if we were even going to make the playoffs and we ended up knocking off a higher seed in FCIACs to get here. I am really proud of the boys for banding together. Now we get to start states and we will see how that goes.”

And it looks like Greenwich will see the other half of the FCIAC championship game, as Big Red appears to play Fairfield Ludlowe in the opening round of the CIAC class LL tournament. And it also appears that standout attacker Nick Bartels will not be back from his knee injury for the state tourney.

“It’s going to be hard because we lost 15 percent of our goals,” Putnam said. “It’s tough and we clearly have to try and find other ways to score goals. Playing Ludlowe in the first round is like playing a state finals game. They are really good. Today we came close at times, but I think the difference is the experience. Darien has a ton of seniors. Danbury has a ton of seniors. Fairfield Ludlowe has a ton of seniors. I had two seniors that were out there today.”

According to Friedman, in order for Greenwich to be successful in the state tournament, they need to tighten up its play in the backfield.

“We lost a lot of games this year off set pieces and corner kicks, but overall it’s all about banding together.

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