MIDDLETOWN — Mercy put together a fine season in 2019 with an experienced defense and a young goalkeeper.
The keeper returned. The defense did not. But Melina Ford and the younger defenders assembled another fine season, capping it Friday night with a 1-0 win over Cheshire at Xavier’s Larry McHugh Field.
At 11-1, Mercy is the SCC Division A champion. Friday’s was the Tigers’ eighth shutout. Ford said it really came together back there after the first couple of games.
“I was used to an older, stronger, taller person,” said the sophomore keeper, named the division tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
SCC Div. A #ctgsoc tournament MOP Melina Ford, Mercy's sophomore GK, on what stood out about this group to her. pic.twitter.com/kf3lXCvye8
— Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp) November 14, 2020
“Once we started working together, figured out how to be a team back there, it worked out. It was probably one of my proudest moments, because it wasn’t just me. It was a team buildup.”
After the CIAC canceled several winter sports tournaments and all of spring sports because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its plan coming back for the fall included shorter seasons, and didn’t include state tournaments. It did include a “tournament experience,” which largely evolved into regional playoffs sponsored by the traditional leagues.
This Division A, for example, included the Wallingford teams, the Hamden teams and North Haven along with the finalists, top-seeded Mercy and third-seeded Cheshire.
In a normal season, a defense trying to get on the same page as a goalie might get together after school, hang out to build camaraderie, huddle up on the field. Things like that were a little harder this season.
“We’d work on it. Sometimes we’d do group FaceTime to figure out where people should play or what would be best for the defense,” Ford said. “There were times early in the season where like it felt like we were having so many issues, we didn’t know what to do. But we worked it out.”
The final seconds and Mercy's celebration after its 1-0 win over Cheshire #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/eT9mMm5Ah5
— Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp) November 14, 2020
Cheshire finished 8-4, with three of those losses to Mercy by a total of four goals.
Cheshire coach Kylee McIntosh said she has worked with some of her seniors for seven or eight years.
“I was just telling them, the resilience, the energy they brought to practice even in the chaos of a pandemic, that’s going to be the most memorable thing for me,” McIntosh said.
Mercy limited dangerous chances for the Rams, and those that got to the net, Ford swept up.
“She’s a great overall goalkeeper, but 1-v-1, she’s just awesome,” Mercy coach Marcus Harley said. “Very little shots will get past her. She’s just awesome: 1-v-1, you think they have a goal, and Melina stops them.”
Ford said she couldn’t pick out a top save among her seven. One that stood out came 1:33 into the second half, moments after Cheshire counterpart Seymone Rosenberg had stopped a Mercy penalty kick.
On a free kick from above the box, on the football hash marks to Ford’s right, Cheshire’s Izzy Pellegrino curled a shot around the box toward the right post. Ford saw it, knocked it down and covered it up.
Kaila Lujambio scored the only goal, finishing off a scramble a little over 10 minutes later.
Here's that Kaila Lujambio goal, the only one in Mercy's 1-0 win over Cheshire. #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/3YOlxDfUTT
— Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp) November 14, 2020
“We talk about chaos all the time at practice, and how we welcome chaos. Games are going to be chaotic, and we can’t control every second of the game,” McIntosh said.
“Does it sting? Of course, but one clearance decides the game. We knew that was how it was going to be. Yeah, it’s hard.”
mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp
