New Canaan dethroned two-time defending champion St. Joseph in the 2024 FCIAC Girls Soccer Tournament final and then the Rams went and made it a bonus banner season by becoming state champions.
Those were the major achievements in a very good FCIAC season in girls’ soccer which included New Canaan, St. Joseph and Ridgefield being ranked 2-through-4 behind No. 1 Mercy in the final coaches’ Class LL/L state poll.
St. Joseph’s Cadets have been quite the dynasty the last several years and they took an 18-0-0 season’s record and a 57-game unbeaten streak into the FCIAC championship game on Oct. 28 at Brien McMahon High School’s Jack Casagrande Field.
New Canaan prevailed by a 3-2 margin in the format of penalty kicks when Sydney Patten was accurate and true on the final penalty kick after the third-seeded Rams and top-seeded Cadets played to a 1-1 tie in regulation and through two overtime periods.
Paige Place converted a penalty kick in the middle of the second half to stake New Canaan to 1-0 lead.
Because of the stellar play from senior captain and goalkeeper Chrysi Gabriel (12 saves) and center back Ceci Patterson along with some more solid defensive support from several more Rams, it seemed as though that one goal by Place would perhaps stand up as the game entered the last couple minutes of regulation.
But then the Alexa Pino factor came into play. St. Joseph’s phenomenal senior, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year after both her sophomore and junior seasons, had some flare for the dramatic when she scored the game-tying goal with just 77 seconds remaining.
In the format of penalty kicks, New Canaan’s Rams converted their final three penalty kicks while overcoming a 2-1 deficit. Pino and Chloe Woodley converted for St. Joseph’s in that format, and Katherine Kupchak and Place converted for the
Rams before Patten ignited their celebration by drilling in that third consecutive penalty kick.
Twenty days later, a Sunday afternoon on Nov. 17 at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford, superb sophomore Clare Greisen scored a goal in the first half of the championship game of the 2024 CIAC Class L Girls Soccer Tournament and the Rams made that lone goal stand up in New Canaan’s 1-0 victory over Sacred Heart Academy. New Canaan was seeded ninth and SHA was the No. 7 seed in the Class L state tourney. After a 1-2 start in their first three games of the regular season, coach Rich Hickson’s New Canaan Rams finished their season with a 19-3-1 record and an 11-game unbeaten streak
since their 1-0 loss at St. Joseph on Oct. 7.
Greisen was quite the sizzling striker in racking up nine goals in the five games in the Class L state tournament, including a hat trick in New Canaan’s 4-0 quarterfinal victory over North Haven. Three days later Greisen scored two goals and assisted Phoebe Schuh on the Rams’ third goal in their 3-1 semifinal victory over Guilford. Patten assisted Greisen on Greisen’s second goal and Gabriel had four saves in goal for New Canaan.
This was New Canaan High School’s eighth overall state championship and first one since 2009. New Canaan won its four Class L state titles in 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2024; and its four Class M crowns occurred in 1988, 1993, 1997, and 2004.
Two FCIAC teams played each other in the semifinals of the Class LL state tournament. St. Joseph was seeded No. 1 with a goal of winning a fourth straight state championship and coach Jack Nogueira’s defending state Class LL champion Cadets advanced to the championship game with their 2-1 victory over No. 12 seed Ridgefield. Sara Parker and Taryn Czick each scored a goal in the second half for the winners on assists from Pino. Chloe Kordas scored the goal for Ridgefield, which finished 12-4-5.
Second-seeded Mercy dethroned St. Joseph by a 2-1 margin in the CIAC Class LL Girls Soccer Tournament championship when Mercy sophomore Molly Benson scored the dramatic game-winning goal in the waning final seconds of regulation on an assist from her older sister, senior Kaylee Benson.
It was Molly Benson’s second goal of the game as she tied the game at 1-1 in the second half.
Pino scored St. Joseph’s goal in the first half on an assist from Parker. St. Joseph, which finished 21-2-0 this year, won Class L state championships in the 2021 and ’22 tournaments before moving up to Class LL last year to win a third straight state title.
Mercy (22-0-1) received six of the 10 first-place votes to be ranked No. 1 in the 2024 Connecticut High School Girls Soccer Final Class LL/L Coaches Poll.
New Canaan (19-3-1) got the other four first-place votes to earn the No. 2 ranking and was followed by fellow FCIAC members St. Joseph (21-2-0) and Ridgefield (12-4-5).
There were four FCIAC teams ranked among the top eight as Staples (14-3-3) was No. 8.
Sacred Heart Academy (16-5-1) was ranked No. 5 and followed in the Top 10 by Amity (19-2-1), Farmington (18-2-2), Staples, Notre Dame Prep (16-5-1), and Brookfield (14-3-4).
St. Joseph secured the top seed in the FCIAC tournament with 45 points via its 15-0 FCIAC record. Teams were awarded three points for a win and one point for a tie.
Staples (11-1-3, 36 points) was the No. 2 seed, eventual champion New Canaan finished with an 11-3-1 FCIAC record and 34 points to snatch the No. 3 seed and was followed by Fairfield Ludlowe (10-3-2, 32 points), Ridgefield (8-2-5, 29 points), Trumbull (8-3-4, 28 points), Greenwich (7-5-3, 24 points), and Danbury (7-8, 21 points).
New Canaan and St. Joseph both advanced to the championship with shutout victories in the semifinals. St. Joseph rolled to an 8-0 victory Fairfield Ludlowe and New Canaan shut out Staples, 2-0.
In the first round of the FCIAC tournament: St. Joseph had a 6-0 victory over Danbury, Staples advanced with a 3-0 shutout over Greenwich, New Canaan beat Trumbull, 3-1, and Ludlowe nipped Ridgefield, 2-1.
St. Joseph had the five players selected to the 2024 All-FCIAC Girls Soccer First Team and Staples had the second most with four. Alexa Pino, Sara Parker, Julie Nunes, Cloe Woodley, and Helena Kaczmarczyk were those five Cadets while the quartet of Staples Wreckers included Natalie Chudowsky, Annabel Edwards, Samantha Henskey, and Addie Talbott.
There were 22 total all-conference first-team selections. The other 13 players were Clare Greisen, Paige Place, and Sydney Patten of New Canaan; Cyan Gatenby and Lucy Hurlbut of Fairfield Ludlowe; Zoe Desmarais and Baila Kessler of Ridgefield; Hannah Felicione and Taegan Bajda of Trumbull; Fairfield Warde’s Paige Shaughnessy; Danbury’s Ava Thathcher; Stamford’s Nia Freeman; and Greenwich’s Anna Lenchow.
The 23 players selected to the 2024 All-FCIAC Girls Soccer Second Team included Samantha Ruffles and Cindy Alarkon of Danbury; Coco Scoma and Bryn Charney of Darien; Lilly Gervasi and Alyssa Santa of Fairfield Luldowe; Aubrey Moore and Kate McMahon of Fairfield Warde; Julia Gustafsson and Taylor Carrescia of Greenwich; Anna Touchard and Hannah Salmore of Ridgefield; Peyton Bashar and Olivia Fuimara of Trumbull; Katie Fitzgerald of Staples; New Canaan’s Chrysi Gabriel; St. Joseph’s Taryn Czick; Bridgeport Central’s Scarlet Supulveda; Brien McMahon’s Faith Ortolano; Darien’s Keely Fox; Norwalk’s Ava Oustafine; Westhill’s Valerie Cardozo; and Wilton’s Cosette Lepore.