East Lyme players hoist goalie Sean Heaney onto their shoulders after his two saves in the penalty kick phase lifted the Vikings past Bacon Academy in the ECC boys’ soccer tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.
Heaney makes two clutch saves as East Lyme edges No.5 Bacon
East Lyme — The East Lyme boys' soccer team may have lost to Bacon Academy in its first two meetings this season, but that was all forgotten on Thursday afternoon.
The fourth-seeded Vikings beat No. 5 Bacon 4-3 on penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 tie over 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods in an Eastern Connecticut Confer- ence tournament quarterfinal. East Lyme lost to Bacon 4-1 on Sept. 26 at Colchester and 3-1 on Monday at home.
"We play better on turf and on our own field,'' said East Lyme coach Paul Christensen. "We're equal teams for sure.''
East Lyme (8-7-2) advances to Tuesday's semifinals at Waterford against the winner of Friday's semifinal between No. 1 Windham and No. 8 Ledyard. Alec Kosinski gave East Lyme a 1-0 lead, scoring off a direct kick 20 minutes into the match. Bacon's Tyler Donovan scored with seven minutes left in regulation.
Bacon (10-4-3) started the penalty kick round and scored but East Lyme sophomore Kurt Mahlke tied the score at 1-1. East Lyme goalie Sean Heaney then made a save and Kosinski converted for a 2-1 lead. Each team made their next two kicks, with Conrad French and Matt Kung scoring for the Vikings. Heaney stopped Bacon's fifth shot and the Vikings poured on the field in celebration.
Christensen feels nonleague losses in October against Guilford, Old Saybrook and Morgan have helped prepare his team for postseason play.
"We weren't always successful against those teams, but it really helped,'' said Christensen. "Going out and picking up wins is one thing but our hope is playing games like that gets us ready for this.'' In other games: • Old Lyme closed out its season by getting its first victory, beating Coginchaug 4-1 in the Shoreline Conference. Ethan Harris scored twice, Quinn Romeo had a goal and an assist, Ryan Tetrault made six saves, Peter Sherman scored a goal and Nick Fava and Evan Getz had assists for the Wildcats (1-11-4).
Volleyball
• Grasso Tech closed out its season by beating Achievement First 3-1 for its first win. Achievement First (2-11) won the opening game 25-20 before Grasso (1-18) won 25-7, 25-18 and 25-17. Erin Blake had six aces and four digs, Rhema Phillips had three aces and two blocks, Ahvyon Evans had three aces and nine kills and Cassandra Beaumont had two aces for Grasso.
• Haley Kerwin had 10 digs, nine kills and three aces to highlight Montville's 25-21, 25-18, 25-12 win over Wheeler in the regular-season finale for both schools. Mackenzie Ullrich added 12 assists and three aces for the Indians (7-13) and Abby Diamantini had 14 digs. Nikki Collins had seven kills, nine digs and two aces for the Lions (9-11) while Marisa Mulhern had four kills and five digs and Sarah Spracklin had five kills and three digs.
Field hockey
• Trinity Lennon scored two goals and had an assist as Stonington beat Fitch/Ledyard 5-0 in the ECC. Olivia Feliciano, Maddie Cassell and Casey Beaumenot had goals, Hannah Pratt had an assist and Aliza Bell made two saves for the Bears (12-3, 11-0). Erin Ritter made 21 saves for Fitch/ Ledyard (8-7, 5-6), which was outshot 29-2.
• Sam Mowry scored a pair of goals as Woodstock Academy beat Norwich Free Academy 4-0 in the ECC. NFA is 0-14, 0-11.
• Angelina Ramada scored in the second half as North Branford finished off an unbeaten regular season with a 1-0 win over Waterford in a nonleague game. North Branford is 15-0-1. Lili Stoddard made 13 saves for Waterford (7-7-1).