East Lyme boys dominate battle of unbeatens and roll to 6-0 soccer victory over Ledyard
Ledyard — The coaches were in pregame agreement that while a meeting of two top 10 soccer teams from the Eastern Connecticut Conference — two 10-0 teams as well — is noteworthy, there’s too much season remaining to hyperventilate over such things.
“Of course, when we play Ledyard, it always means something,” East Lyme coach Paul Christensen said. “But we didn’t want our guys’ hopes and dreams blown up if we walked off with a loss. It’s game 11, not the World Cup.”
Fair enough.
But let the record show that the No. 8 Vikings showed their estimable capabilities Saturday with a 6-0 win over the No. 10 Colonels. The road to the ECC title runs through the 06333.
“A game between two undefeated teams,” East Lyme senior Rob Stoddard said. “We wanted to show everyone that we are real contenders. Six-nil is a good result for us.”
Stoddard scored twice for the Vikings (11-0) as did Ryan Wargo. Dom Stefanski and A.J. Montejano (who assisted on Stoddard’s first goal with a long throw-in) helped the Vikings zap all the drama from this one.
East Lyme has allowed one goal through 11 games, a late-first half score during its recent 4-1 win over Morgan. Nobody from the ECC has scored on the Vikings this season.
And yet Christensen, while happy with the numbers, was happier about his team’s demeanor Saturday.
“I hope this sent a message … to our own team,” Christensen said. “It’s really the first time we played together as a team. We’ve had great individual performances, but this was a team effort. The expectations here are high and sometimes the guys get on each other. But there was none of that today.”
Stoddard said, “We connected every well. Our goal is to win the ECC and make a run at a state title. The best way to do that is playing together.”
Christensen earned career coaching victory No. 395. The earliest he can achieve 400 is the last day of the regular season, Oct. 25 at Woodstock Academy.
m.dimauro@theday.com
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