HARTFORD – At the beginning of the season, Simsbury boys soccer coach Mike McCullough wasn’t sure what he had with his team.
But as the season went on, he said the Trojans started to believe in themselves.
Sunday night, in the Class L soccer championship game, they rallied once in regulation, once in OT, then went ahead and won their first title in 19 years on penalty kicks, 3-2, over Wethersfield at Trinity Health Stadium.
“We were behind both times and both times they fought to come back,” McCullough said. “I’m super proud of them. They never quit.”
Senior defender Emmanuel Lee scored the winning penalty kick to make it 4-3, then Wethersfield’s Joao Fraga missed a shot and Simsbury’s senior goalkeeper Gavin Paradise leapt up off the ground and sprinted to the stands and jumped in among the fans.
Lee had one goal this season, he said, and “a couple assists.”
“I’m not much of a goal scorer,” he said.
But he added, “I couldn’t be more proud of myself, this team. This is a great group of guys. I love these guys so much. It’s just amazing.”
Paradise, who has split time in goal with another senior, Max Rodenbusch, all season, did it again Sunday and was in goal for the second overtime and the penalty kicks.
“Probably one of the most stressful situations you can be in as a keeper, but you got to push through,” Paradise said.
Sophomore Keegan McCullough, the coach’s son who scored the tying goal with 8:47 left in the second overtime, was up for the first penalty kick but his shot went off the post. Paradise made the save on the first Wethersfield shot.
“Gavin had our back, big save, got us right back in it,” said senior Ryan Goodwin, who scored on the next penalty kick for Simsbury to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead and was named MVP. “We all did our jobs.”
Said Mike McCullough: “We’ve been working on (penalty kicks) all week and he’s done an excellent job. Any time you can get a save, it’s big.”
The two CCC teams played Sept. 8 and the game ended in a 0-0 tie. Sunday, Wethersfield scored first on a goal by Tarik Alihodzic with 30:16 left. Simsbury tied it when Goodwin scored his 12th goal of the season with 22:45 left.
Then it went into OT. Alihodzic scored again with 6:43 left. Wethersfield’s defense, led by Ramo Ahmetovic, was stifling and Simsbury was struggling to score.
But when Ahmetovic got a yellow card and had to leave the game, Keegan McCullough broke free and scored on a rebound after goalkeeper Joey McKenna made the first save on a shot. The score was tied again, at 2.
Then it came down to PKs. Goodwin scored. Alihodzic scored to tie it for Wethersfield. Michael Roche put one in for Simsbury. Damian Sardo scored for Wethersfield to tie it at 2. Dylan Rodgers scored for Simsbury. Ahmetovic tied it at 3.
Lee’s shot ended up being the winner.
“It means everything,” Goodwin said. “We’ve worked so hard. I can’t believe we won this. I knew we had it, we would never give up. Twice we came back. I never gave up.”