Copyright Hartford Courant
NEW BRITAIN – Senior Will Accorsi knows what it’s like to win a state championship. He was the State Open champ in wrestling last year in the 113-pound weight class. But he’s never been with a team, and now he will get that chance. His fifth-seeded Somers High soccer team beat Cromwell 4-1 in the Class S semifinal game Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium to advance to the state championship game against Haddam-Killingworth, a 4-2 winner over Morgan Tuesday. The final will be either Saturday or Sunday at a time to be determined at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford. “Soccer is everyone doing their job; if we work as a team, this is what happens,” said Accorsi, who scored the Spartans’ second goal in the first half. “In wrestling, it’s just you against everyone else. It’s completely different. “This, I feel like, has a lot more meaning. It’s not an individual thing. It shows all our hard work.” Somers (15-3-1) hadn’t played in a final since 2017 and the last time the Spartans won a championship was 2015. It was coach Rick Kelley’s fifth trip to the championship game in 14 years. Cromwell (14-4-3) scored the first goal Tuesday and the first goal the Spartans had allowed in the tournament when Ben Burdick’s header gave Cromwell a 1-0 lead with 25:34 left in the first half. “Historically, this season we’ve always been punched first – or we go 20 minutes and we’re not scoring against a team we should be dominating – that was the first goal we gave up this entire postseason,” Accorsi said. “It was kind of a shock to us but 10 minutes later we put one in the back of the net and kept going.” Giancarlo Bacabac, one of Somers’ eight seniors, tied the score with 10:07 left in the first then Accorsi put the Spartans up 2-1 with 2:02 left in the half. Ben Medrek scored his first goal on a penalty shot at the 34:53 mark of the second half and got another goal with 8:52 left for Somers. Last year, Somers was the second seed but lost 1-0 in the quarterfinals to Northwestern. This year, they cruised through a raft of Shoreline Conference teams – a 6-0 win over Hale-Ray to open the tournament, 3-0 over Old Lyme in the second round and a 2-0 win over No. 4 seed Old Saybrook in the quarterfinals. “They have perseverance and grit and I think you witnessed that today,” Kelley said.
