Recap
Trumbull, CT — TRUMBULL — Sil Vitiello conceded he was uncertain about the scoring capability of his rebuilt Trumbull boys soccer team prior to tonight’s game against unbeaten Darien.
The Eagles, two-time defending league champions, came in 3-1-2 despite scoring just seven goals, four of which came in a 4-0 win over Bridgeport Central 48 hours earlier.
Vitiello’s outlook for his offense, at least in the short term, changed dramatically following a 4-1 win over the Blue Wave. Christian Moura scored twice in under two minutes to stake the Eagles to a 2-1 halftime lead in what was 40 minutes of end to end offensive attacks. It was somewhat surprising there were not twice as many goals scored.
Trumbull applied the clamps in the second half, helped by a marvelous sequence in which goalkeeper Connor Hughes stopped a point-blank shot by Darien’s Miles Lefkowitz, then released the ball and ended up getting an assist on a transition goal by Mateus Almeida in the 57th minute. Jeremiah Heins later closed out the scoring.
“It’s a work in progress. Its been a work in progress all year,” Vitiello said. “We basically have a brand new team and we’ve been trying to incrementally develop each of the levels of the team. We were getting chances and the ball just wasn’t going in for us. When you play the percentages and keep doing what you’re doing the dam is going to break. It’s just staying with the plan. Not changing what we are doing but staying within the system and good things are going to happen if we keep banging away.”
Today was full of important outcomes. Defending league and Class LL runner-up Stamford was handed its first loss by a Danbury team operating underneath the radar but now the owner of four straight wins. Greenwich, the team most conference coaches consider the favorite, had a resounding 6-3 win over Staples — the Wreckers tacked on a goal in the final second — and is 5-0. And Ludlowe won its fifth straight game after an opening loss to the Cardinals.
No one has discounted the Eagles despite the loss of star Owen Bull and several other starters to graduation, and tonight was a reminder why.
Moura’s two finishes, the first a booming shot after a scramble in front of the Darien goal, swayed the momentum.
“That first half was a lot of fun,” Moura said. “We came out hungry. We came into the game with high expectations. We really needed the win. We started out undefeated and knew we had room to improve and be better and we set the tone early. I’ve been waiting a long time this season, it’s been a little rough but its finally started to click.”
Darien (4-1-1), which has been playing high-scoring matches, got a goal from Jack Flynn midway through the first half and had many chances in the early going but was unable to finish. Hughes’ save on Lefkowitz and the ensuing Trumbull score was the clincher
“We’ve played a lot of games like this,” Darien coach Jon Bradley said. “They capitalized more on their opportunities. There were chances on both ends. It could have finished 11-7. That’s going to be how we play. We’re not going to sit back and defend. With the grind of the season, if you sit back and defend you won’t get enough wins in this league.”