Spartans punch ticket to M final

MERIDEN — The Lewis Mills and Morgan girls soccer teams squared off in the Class M state tournament for the third straight season Monday night.

Lewis Mills in shutouts in the second and quarterfinal rounds, respectively. This time, a precious berth to the Class M final was on the line. And two programs gave the fans in attendance at Falcon Field quite a show.

Three goals by each team, one each in the first overtime period, helped send the game to penalty kicks. And No. 1 seed Lewis Mills kept its undefeated season alive, winning 4-2 in the PK session.

“We’re here for a handful of reasons, and one of them is resilience,” Lewis Mills coach Jared Sheikh said. “It’s a trait I always knew this team possessed.”

Lewis Mills goalkeeper Resmije Bylybashi saved two PKs, including the final one, a diving save off the foot of Olivia Swan.

“How about credit going to our goalkeeper in penalty kicks? My goodness,” Sheikh said. “As a sophomore, to step up in a situation like this, I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

This is the Spartans’ first trip to the state finals since 2010. They will face No. 3 seed Plainfield, also a winner in penalty kicks over No. 10 Weston, in Saturday’s final at a site and time to be determined.

It’s also the first time in three seasons that the Spartans (19-0) advanced past the semifinals.

“It was an amazing game. Morgan is an amazing opponent,” said Morgan Sokol, who scored twice and made a PK. “I cant even explain it. We knew we could still win. We tried to pick everybody’s head up and keep going.”

It ended a great season for the Huskies (16-2-3), winning their first Shoreline Conference championship in 15 years.

“The thing that impressed me about my kids this season was their grit,” Morgan coach Steve Sullivan said. “We are never down, we always fight. I told my assistant coaches during the game, ‘Win, lose or draw, this one of the greatest high school games I’ve ever been a part of.’”

Morgan was able to do some-

thing no other opponent has done against Lewis Mills: hold a lead. Morgan took a 2-1 lead early in the second half on Alyssa Smith’s free kick into the top right corner of the net. It was the first time the Spartans had trailed this season.

And they trailed for over 20 minutes until the Huskies were whistled for a foul. Sokol fired past a diving keeper Rebecca Cockley into the right side of the net for the equalizer with 13:30 left.

I go the same way every time (to the right),” Sokol said.

Sokol scored on a penalty kick just 30 seconds into overtime after Morgan was whistled for a handball. Then incredibly, Smith scored her second goal on a long free kick into the top portion of the net, over Bylybashi’s head as the buzzer to end the first overtime period sounded

Both teams got through the second overtime period

to set up the thrilling finish.

“One of our goals was to get to a state final. We fell a couple of kicks short,” Sullivan said.

Abby Mills broke the scoreless deadlock with 17:21 left before halftime with a shot past Cockley.

Morgan responded 81 seconds later. Bylybashi made a diving save on Smith’s free kick. The ball deflected out and Taylor maher put it home for the Huskies.

That Spartans had allowed just two goals coming in to Monday night. Nonnewaug scored twice in the same game. Lewis Mills has posted 17 shutouts, including two in this tournament.

“You want to keep a clean sheet (shutout), but the reality is when you play a fine, attacking team like Morgan, who has seen us three years in a row now, on a night like tonight, keeping anybody off the score sheet is pretty difficult,” Sheikh said.