Greenwich was undefeated in the regular season and then the Cardinals won their first three games of the postseason to win the 2024 FCIAC Boys Soccer Tournament championship.
Greenwich’s ninth conference crown in school history, soon followed up with those Cardinals and the Trumbull Eagles both advancing to the semifinals of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Soccer Class LL Tournament were a few achievements which highlighted the boys’ soccer season in the FCIAC.
Greenwich took a 15-0-3 record into the state tournament after its 1-0 victory over Stamford in the FCIAC tournament final. The conference final was a scoreless game for most of regulation until Pietro Cavalho kicked in the game-winning goal with 6:31 left in the second half after receiving the corner kick feed from Francisco Luzuriaga on Oct. 29 at New Canaan High School’s Dunning Field.
Greenwich goalkeeper Miguel Leon stopped four shots to earn the shutout, and he received some excellent defensive support from senior center back Finn Hugh-Jones, who was selected MVP of the championship game. Marc Zampino was stellar in goal for Stamford with eight saves.
Top-seeded Greenwich advanced to the championship game with a 1-0 quarterfinal victory over No. 8 Ridgefield and a 3-1 overtime victory over No. 5 Brien McMahon in the semifinals. The seventh-seeded Stamford Black Knights advanced to the FCIAC tourney final for the second straight year with a 3-2 quarterfinal victory over No. 2 Trumbull followed by their 2-0 victory over No. 6 Danbury. Last year Trumbull won the FCIAC championship with 3-2 overtime victory over Stamford.
In this year’s two other quarterfinal games: Danbury posted a stunning 6-0 victory over third-seeded Darien and Brien McMahon advanced to the semifinals by coming through with a 3-2 advantage in penalty kicks against No. 5 Fairfield Ludlowe after the teams were still tied at 1-1 after two halves of regulation and overtime.
Greenwich secured the No. 1 seed with its 12-0-3 conference record in the regular season. Trumbull was runner-up at 10-2-3 and followed by Darien (9-3-3), Fairfield Ludlowe (9-4-2), Brien McMahon (9-5-1), Danbury (8-4-3), Stamford 7-3-5) and Ridgefield (8-6-1).
Greenwich and Trumbull both won three games to advance to the semifinals of the CIAC Class LL Boys Soccer Tournament. Especially noteworthy was Trumbull’s eighth-seeded Eagles shutting out the No. 1 seed and previously undefeated Notre Dame-West Haven, 1-0, in the quarterfinals. Third-seeded Greenwich beat Norwalk, 4-1, in the quarterfinals. Seventh-seeded Farmington won the Class LL state championship with a 3-1 victory over No. 4 Xaver after advancing to the final with a 4-1 victory over Greenwich. Xavier nipped Trumbull, 2-1, in the other semifinal.
In addition to Trumbull’s victory over ND-West Haven, the strength and depth of the FCIAC in general was further justified by the fact that two teams who were not among the top eight who made the FCIAC tournament had some notable success in the Class LL state tourney. Norwalk’s 27th-seeded Bears made a commendable run to the quarterfinals as they stunned sixth-seeded Maloney, 2-0, in the first round and followed that up with a 4-2 victory over 22nd-seeded West Haven. Also in the first round, the 21st -seeded Staples Wreckers fired shots into the netting cords eight times in their 8-0 victory over No. 12 Manchester, No. 13 Stamford advanced via its 5-3 advantage in penalty kicks after the Black Knights and No. 20 Ridgefield played to a 3-3 tie in regulation and two overtimes, and ninth-seeded Darien advanced to the second round with a 4-3 double-overtime victory over No. 24 South Windsor.
Greenwich finished with a 20-1-1 overall record and was ranked No. 4, and Trumbull (14-5-3) was ranked No. 6 in the 2024 Connecticut High School Boys Soccer Final Class LL/L Poll.
Farmington (17-2-2) was the unanimous choice for No. 1 as the recipient of all 11 first-place votes. Xavier (19-3-2) was ranked second and Notre Dame-West Haven (19-1-1) was No. 3.
Class L state champion Brookfield (13-4-6) was ranked No. 5 behind Greenwich and just ahead of Trumbull. The four teams ranked 7-10 were Pomperaug (17-3-4), Glastonbury (17-2-3), Bethel (19-1-1), and Cheshire (13-6-1).
Stamford’s star senior forward Noel Vargas had 15 goals and two assists and was the only FCIAC player among the 12 total statewide selected to the 2024 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Soccer First Team.
Vargas and Greenwich senior midfielder Santiago Lattuada were selected All-Americans in December. Vargas made the All-FCIAC Boys Soccer First Team for the second consecutive year this year after having made the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team last year. Lattuada made the All-FCIAC First Team and was GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention this year.
Senior forwards Charlie Jones of Fairfield Ludlowe and Greenwich’s Matthew Maloney were both selected to the All-FCIAC First Team for the second year in a row and to the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team this year. Trumbull senior forward Mateus Almeida was picked to the All-FCIAC First Team and GameTimeCT All-State Second Team this year. Greenwich’s senior defender Juan Bruzzone, Trumbull’s senior goalkeeper Connor Hughes, and Ridgefield’s senior goalkeeper Benjamin Voellmicke all made All-FCIAC First Team and GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
Befitting a team which earned the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC tournament and then won the championship, Greenwich led the way with four players on the 2024 All-FCIAC Boys Soccer First Team as Pietro Carvalho was the other Cardinal who joined Lattuada, Maloney, and Bruzzone on that 23-player all-conference first team.
The other players selected to the All-FCIAC First Team were Kevin Segura and Justin Rich of Brien McMahon, Cameron Moyers and Parker Skelton of Darien, Bridgeport Central’s Jensen Joassaint, Danbury’s Gabriel Lopes, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Ian Moore, Fairfield Warde’s Gabe Tiene, New Canaan’s Will Arnold, Norwalk’s Dalton Bury, St. Joseph’s Lucas Auten, Stamford’s Tuyler Szemplinski, Staples’ Cormac Mulvey, and Wilton’s Finn Burke.
A combined total of 43 players were selected to one of the two FCIAC all-division teams. The 20 players on the FCIAC All-East Division Team were Jack Flynn, Thomas Graziosa, Sebastian Gardner, and Miles Lefkowitz of Darien; Kenny Luczaj, Chase McCormack, Sean Malecky and Luke DiLillo of Fairfield Ludlowe; Ronan Hanley, Roman Holian, Brandon Gmelin and Theo Janzon of Ridgefield; Lucas Harlacker and Meyer Stransky of Fairfield Warde; Marco Tignanelli and Max Maggard of New Canaan; Matt DeMasi and Evan Arghirescu of Wilton; Bridgeport Central’s Tawaab Agrignan; and St. Joseph’s Zane Guglielmoni.
The 23 players selected to the FCIAC All-West Division Team were Christian Yuqui, Kayky Neves-Schlitz, Anthony Rodriguez, and Kenneth Vazquez of Danbury; Gavin Racette, David Onianwa, Christian Moura, and Nathan Helminger of Trumbull; David Romero, William Chang, and Massimo Ruffo of Brien McMahon; Manuel Bonilla, Miguel Leon, and Francisco Luzuriaga of Greenwich; Rory O’Halloran, Owen Fedeli, and Adrian Hernandez of Stamford; Will Butler and Jordan Stefanides of Norwalk; Will Murray and Zachary Gorin of Staples; and Westhill’s Martin Ivanov and Jean Carlos Muralles.
NOTES: The first 21 FCIAC championships were either won outright or shared by Brien McMahon and Staples from 1961-81. That streak ended when Ridgefield and Brien McMahon were co-champions in 1982. Staples has the FCIAC record of 26 conference championships, consisting of the 20 titles the Wreckers won outright and the six in which they were co-champions. Brien McMahon has the second most with 11. Greenwich has the third most with that ninth FCIAC title the Cardinals added this year. Trumbull won its seventh conference crown last year, Danbury has the fifth most with the six titles, and Ridgefield is sixth with five FCIAC championships.