Scrimmages kick off the new season

TORRINGTON » Put away your baseball/softball gloves. It’s time for fall sports.

Torrington and Northwestern proved it with their first boys soccer scrimmages Monday evening as noteworthy teams from the two public high school leagues playing in the Northwest Corner – the Naugatuck Valley League, with a preponderance of Class L and LL schools and the Berkshire League, Class M and S.

“We’re here to find out what’s there,” said Northwestern Coach Andy Campbell, whose team had a rollicking 56 candidates turn out this year.

“We want to see how much work they did over the summer,” said Torrington Coach Mike Fritch.

Both teams come back from successful tours a year ago.

Torrington finished its regular season 11- 4 behind Naugatuck and Oxford, who vied for

the league championship in a 1-0 Naugatuck win in the league tournament final.

Northwestern was 9-7, third in the BL behind undefeated Nonnewaug and Lewis Mills.

Now, it’s time to start again. In high school sports, some of the key parts are bound to be missing.

Torrington graduated defender Brendan Stater, midfielders Ryan Nader and Scott Dixon and goalkeeper Luke Wassik.

“We have a lot of sophomores looking to slide in,” said Fritch.

Northwestern’s key absences Monday came from a school orientation program for freshmen, in which a handful of starting seniors served as mentors, including Jamison Weber, All-BL Trevor Duffy, Jackson Dropick and Colin Winkler.

That was fine with Campbell, faced with his huge pare-down task.

“We’ve got 20 kids fighting for a spot, including 6 or 7 sophomores,” he said.

So, like an NFL exhibition game, you can only read a few things from a scrimmage – especially the first of the season.

That said, look for a nice scoring punch from the Red Raiders this year. The missing Highlander starters left holes right up the middle, so take a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, Alex Segovia scored twice in the first five minutes. All-State striker Naseem Thompson, the fastest man on the field, raced past a defender for another moments later.

Both teams did five-minute shifts to see all their rosters, but key players stood out – or, in Northwestern’s case, were notably missed.

Red Raider standouts, along with Thompson and Segovia were Brett Stater, Jimmy Friscia, Edwards Cardonas, Xavi Rodas and sophomore goalkeeper candidate Kevin Hidrovo.

For Northwestern, “Some questions got answered while a load of new ones were raised,” said Campbell.

“Communication needs to improve,” said Fritch. “We finished nicely, but we could have finished more.”

The coaches want faster play, essential at the top of both leagues.

“The speed of turf is new to us,” said Campbell. “Nobody in our league has it. Then, we go to states, where it’s all turf.”

Fritch sees Naugatuck and Oxford strong again in the NVL, along with Iron Division teams Wa- tertown, Woodland, Wolcott and Seymour.

“With all the new schools, it gets evened out,” he said. “Everybody caught up to everybody else.”

Campbell expects to vie again with Nonnewaug and Mills, viewing Thomaston as a prime candidate to join the elite.

“We have a good group coming back. I think we’ll be fine,” said Fritch.

“We’re not quite ready for prime time,” grinned Campbell, feeling his temporary absences up the middle.

He’ll see his team at full strength Thursday in a jamboree with Wilton, New Milford and Foran before opening at Nonnewaug a week from Friday.

Torrington scrimmages Bristol Eastern Thursday and Litchfield the following Wednesday, then opens the season at home September 8 against Holy Cross.