Montville — The St. Bernard boys’ soccer team is one of only 25 high school teams nationwide to receive a United Soccer Coaches Platinum Team Ethics Award.

The Saints earned the honor by completing the 2022 season without receiving either a yellow or red card. Joe Purtill, who has coached the team for the last 13 seasons, was also named the Class S Boys’ Soccer Coach of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association.

“Joe Purtill is a quiet, steady force whose voice is respected on the field,” St. Bernard Athletic Director Sue Griffin said in a release. “As a coach, he exemplifies the meaning of fair play and sportsmanship - his expectations for his players are unwavering. But Joe teaches his teams more than soccer.

“The greatest trait that he consistently models is humility - one of the values of our Xaverian tradition. The combination of humility and excellence is a powerful one.”

Just 135 fall season boys and girls teams across the country received either the Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze version of the High School Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game, as reflected by the number of yellow caution cards or red ejection cards they are shown by referees throughout the season based on the number of cards accumulated divided by the number of games played.