Crown secured

Mercy ties Guilford, clinches SCC Quinnipiac title

GUILFORD — The Southern Connecticut Conference Quinnipiac Division championship for girls soccer was on the line Friday afternoon.

Both Mercy and Guilford had a level of play that matched the game’s importance: Both teams played hard, got a little physical and there were few mistakes on either side. The shot total was also fairly close.

All of that made for a predictable final result: a 00 tie at Kavanaugh Field.

Since Mercy (1122) had handed Guilford (923) one of its two losses earlier this season, the Tigers clinched the Quinnipiac title for the second straight season.

“That’s exciting.” Mercy coach Marcus Harley said. “When there was 10 minutes left, we weren’t looking to go score. We would have loved to win, but we will take the tie. We didn’t want to push people (toward goal) and commit and make a mistake and they get a goal.”

This also ends Guilford’s string of division championships at six straight, all previously in the Hammonasset.

“We wanted it but were not fixated on it. This didn’t make or break our season,” Guilford coach Scott McMahon said. “I felt we played very well. Might be the first time in awhile where we sort of walked off the field feeling we didn’t get the result we thought we deserved.”

Guilford had more shot attempts (129) than Mercy did, but both had better scoring opportunities that were not on goal. Mercy goalkeeper Melina Ford finished with six saves while Guilford’s Claire Mackenzie, in her first game back after missing two with an ankle injury, collected five saves.

The division title aside, attempting to handicap the favorite in the