Just moments after losing one of their premier players to injury, the Greenwich High boys soccer team came together for a memorable finish, despite being in unfamiliar territory in crunchtime of Thursday’s FCIAC quarterfinal.
The unbeaten and top-seeded Cardinals defended their home turf with a 2-1 victory over eighth-seed Staples, but not without some late drama.
With just over eight minutes remaining in the game, Staples netted the equalizer via Thomas Nealon’s rebound and score to make it 1-1.
A 26th minute goal from Shoki Araki put Greenwich in the lead for the majority of the match, but with just eight minutes to go, a berth to the FCIAC semifinals was on the line for both the Wreckers and the Cardinals.
And just seconds later, Greenwich would suffer another blow in the form of an injury to Alejandro Maclean when Staples’ goalkeeper came out to contest a ball 20-yards from the goal.
Not even a minute passed after that when Greenwich became the recipient of a penalty shot and an opportunity that Kai Lammers couldn’t pass up.
“When the penalty happened, which I’m not sure how it happened, I said that I was going to step up and make the penalty,” said Lammers. “I picked up the ball and said, you guys, I got this.”
In the 73rd minute, Lammers lined up for the penalty shot and found the back of the net to give Greenwich the go-ahead score and eventual victory over Staples.
“Someone had to step up, I decided that would be me today,” said Lammers following the game.
The Cardinals hung on in the final six minutes of play to advance into the FCIAC semifinals where they will meet Fairfield Warde tomorrow.
“One thing you can’t fault their guys for is that they come prepared and they leave it all out on the field,” said GHS head coach Kurt Putnam. “Somebody had to lose. The matter in which they ended up losing the game was a bit dubious, to be honest.”
The Cardinals had plenty of chances to score goals in the first half, but a stingy Staples defense held them off for nearly the entire game.
Goalkeeper James Johnson recorded a handful of clutch saves in the final 20 minutes of play
“Jimmy made a double-save at one point and that really made a difference,” said Putnam. “One thing that Staples did do is that they outsized us in 75 percent of the headers and flick-ons. We found it a little bit difficult to deal with that.”
Staples finished with a 7-3-6 regular season record and went out as one of the conference’s toughest eight-seeds in recent history.
“To be honest, it was the one team who I didn’t want to see,” said Putnam.
Greenwich will play the fifth-seeded Fairfield Warde in the semifinals that are being held at Fairfield Ludlowe on Tuesday.
