Aidan Peterson and the Holy Cross boys soccer team seek a return trip to the Class S state final, a place they haven’t been to since 2019. They have to beat the team that they lost to in that 2019 final, Old Saybrook, tonight in Milford to get there. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
The Holy Cross girls volleyball team wasn’t the only squad from Oronoke Road to make it to the state semifinals.
The fifth-seeded Holy Cross boys soccer team plays in its Class S semifinal on this evening at 6 o’clock at Milford’s Jonathan Law High School. The Crusaders have a tall task in front of them in top-seeded Old Saybrook, which has won the last four Class S championships. One of those four wins came in overtime against Holy Cross, 3-1, in 2019 at Willow Brook Park in New Britain.
Holy Cross reached the semifinal round with wins over No. 12 Portland in the second round (3-1) and No. 13 Bolton (1-0) in the quarterfinal round. Old Saybrook beat No. 16 Canton (2-1) in the second round and No. 8 East Hampton (1-0) in the quarterfinal round. Both teams had first round byes.
Junior Eli Simoes had the lone Crusader goal in Saturday night’s quarterfinal win over Bolton at Municipal Stadium’s Ray Snyder Sr. Field. Aidan Peterson notched six saves for the clean sheet against the Bulldogs. Holy Cross is led by seniors Peterson, Landon Coelho, Elias Wall, Marshall Melita, Aiden Hebb and Marcello Cornacchia. Lucca Magaracci, Bryan Elliott and Rami Nonez are also seniors.
Old Saybrook, coached by the legendary Steve Waters, who was previously at Farmington, is 18-0-2. The only “blemishes” on the Ram résumé are ties against Portland (0-0 on Sept. 8, opening day) and Suffield (1-1 on Sept. 27). Old Saybrook is led by first team All-Shoreline players Kevin Decapua (senior), London Sweeney (senior) and Brayden Cody (senior). Second team All-Shoreline players were junior Brendan Cassella and senior Drew Kulmann. Junior Jack Morin was honorable mention All-Shoreline.
The winner plays second-seeded Shepaug Valley-Washington, a 1-0 winner over Haddam-Killingworth in their semifinal on Tuesday night at Naugatuck, this weekend in the Class S final at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford.
