Sports: Ledyard boys beat East Lyme, will face Stonington for ECC soccer title

Waterford — It was during Bill Glenney's greatest moment of angst Tuesday night — he just watched his team's lead go poof in the last 30 seconds of regulation — that he suddenly found his prophetic side.

"I want to say this for the record," Glenney, the coach of boys' soccer at Ledyard High School said. "Before we went to overtime, I said Jack Woodruff was going to win this for us." From Glenney's lips to Woodruff's ... leg.

And it was Woodruff, whose goal barely a minute into overtime, who led the eighth-seeded Colonels into the Eastern Connecticut Conference Tournament championship game. Ledyard squeezed past East Lyme, 3-2, setting up a date with No. 2 Stonington in Thursday's title game at East Lyme (7 p.m.).

Stonington (17-0-1) defeated Lyman Memorial in the night's other semifinal, 4-1.

East Lyme's Duncan Manthaus tied the game with 30 seconds left in regulation, minutes after Brandon Donovan gave Ledyard a 2-1 lead.

"We were super unlucky," Woodruff said. "I couldn't believe it. Thirty seconds left. But in the circle before overtime, we started hyping each other up. And when we got the corner, we just wanted to create chaos."

That's what the Colonels (13-5-1) have done in this tournament.

"The tide of up and down, giving up a goal with 30 seconds left, it was a roller coaster," Glenney said. "But the kids didn't panic. They don't panic. There's no 'poor us.'"

Stonington, meanwhile, fell behind Lyman 1-0, an eerily similar scenario from earlier this season.

"We fell behind Waterford on this field in the first few seconds of the game and we didn't handle it well," Stonington coach Paul deCastro said. "Today was much, much better. A real sign of improvement."

Graham Johnstone scored two goals, the second of which snapped a 1-1 tie in the second half. Ty Fidrych

and Rhys Hammond also scored for the Bears while Fidrych, Jamison Magowan, Cam Whalen and Blake Edwards had assists.

All of which makes for quite an interesting championship game. It's unlikely (Ledyard) vs. undefeated (Stonington).

"One of the things we've talked about is that the regular season is over," deCastro said. "We're 2-0 (thus far in the postseason). That's how we are looking at it."

Glenney, meanwhile, has arguably the hotter team going into Thursday night.

"All the pressure is on Stonington," Glenney said. "We scrimmaged them. We know they are really good. Really good. They have players with very high soccer IQs. Nobody expects the No. 8 seed to really go out there and beat the No. 2 team in the state. So all the pressure is on them. We'll just go out and play." m.dimauro@theday.com