By Danny Contreras
“We believed in ourselves the whole season, and people came in the pre-season thinking we’d finish bottom. Give credit to our guys, we went from bottom to top in one year and not many teams can do that,” said men’s soccer Head Coach Shaun Green, who celebrated his 27th season with a Northeast Conference Championship, securing it with a 2-0 win over St. Francis (NY) on Friday afternoon.
CCSU finished in a three-way tie at the top of the NEC with Sacred Heart and Monmouth, all having 21 points in conference play.
The Blue Devils (10-8, 7-3 NEC) had to travel to the University of Hartford to play the game against the Terriers (10-5-3, 5-3-2 NEC) due to the widespread power outages in New Britain.
Both of CCSU’s goals were scored in the first 24 minutes of the match, giving them the insurance they needed to win the match.
“The early goals were critical. This team had to win the games to make it to the play-offs and this team knew they had to win to get into the play-offs,” Green said. “We knew early we needed to score early and then go into defensive mode. Of course Eddy Bogle, a local kid, has had a massive impact in the games, and Reece Wilson stepped it up in the last three games and we’ve done well.”
In the 23rd minute, Bogle combined with Alpha Dioubate in the penalty box to score the first goal of the game. Bogle placed the ball in the bottom left corner of the goal with a sliding kick after a through pass from Dioubate leaving two Terriers’ defenders in their wake.
Just one minute later, following a foul from Bryant Vargas on the 35 yard line, Wilson slotted home the set-piece effort with a free-kick that curled into the top right corner of the goal.
CCSU began the game with a high tempo, getting its first corner kick with only ten seconds on the clock. However, the corner kick did not materialize, but the Terriers rarely ever got a touch of the ball during the opening ten minutes.
The Blue Devils maintained possession, completing 80 percent of their passes. In the eighth minute, Bogle forced a heroic save from St. Francis’ Tyler Clarhaut after combining with Wilson and Thomas Obasi, which would have been a sure goal.
“It just takes time to understand your partners. Like in every relationship, it takes time,” said Green. “I’ve felt every week as we got into training and the more games we played, the more players understood each other; appreciating each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Our attacking players [got] better as the season went on, understanding their idiosyncrasies.” The partnership between Bogle and Wilson combined for 12 goals in 18 games this season.
As the game wore on, the Blue Devils’ fitness grew exposed thanks to the tiredness of the Terriers. Of course, the Terriers never gave up and created a great chance on 33 minutes courtesy of Giorgio Ferrarra, who received a pass from just outside the CCSU box. Ferrarra tried a dipper shot on Anthony Occhialini, but couldn’t get it under control and the ball went high of the bar. The first half finished soon after with the Blue Devils ahead 2-0.
The second half began with the Terriers maintaining more possession than the Blue Devils, as CCSU went into defensive mode.
Although St. Francis kept possession, they did not create many clear chances in the game and CCSU caught them many times on the break with some great counter-attacks.
Between the 75th and 80th minute, CCSU had three chances to thrash the Terriers had it not been for bad finishing and good goalkeeping. The first chance came courtesy of Dioubate and Wilson, who ran down opposite sides with only one defender in the way. Reece and Dioubate played a one-two down the left closer to the box but Wilson’s finish saw the ball go wide.
The third and final chance of the game came when Dioubate left three defenders on the floor following some amazing dribbling clearing himself and Stephen Walmsley of any defenders, but his back-pass was intercepted and cleared.
Green took the time to congratulate co-captain Aaron Durr, who began the program four years ago following the Blue Devils’ final play-off visit in 2007.
“I’m proud of Aaron, you know? He’s a local kid from Meriden, [Conn.], and for four years he’s put every minute of every game this season. He stood up and added a lot of leadership into this team, into this game. I asked him in this game that every other game counts for this one, and he’s been fantastic.”
CCSU, Sacred Heart, Monmouth, and Fairleigh Dickinson University have clinched play-off berths with the winner going to the NCAA tournament.
“I feel incredible, man. To go from bottom of the league to finish first feels terrific,” commented Durr. “Tony [Occhialini], first of all, has been our best player, hands down, this season. He’s been phenomenal. Back there, Mamoudou, Bailey, we’ve just had a connection this year, shutouts win the games and we were able to keep it up.”
The Blue Devils return to action in the NEC tournament at Sacred Heart this Friday at 3 p.m. They will face Monmouth, who was an early season favorite that earned votes for the top 25 rankings just a few weeks ago. The Blue Devils upset the Hawks 2-1 on the road back on Oct. 2.
This is CCSU’s first appearance in the NEC tournament since 2007 when they won it all. They later advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the national tournament, which was arguably their most successful season to date.
