It’s not often a team captures a feat multiple times in the span of a few years, dominating much of the competition that gets in its way. This fall, the Morgan girls’ soccer team found themselves back at the top of the Shoreline Conference, nailing down a third consecutive conference title.

With a new head coach at the helm and a mix of veterans and new talent, the uncertainties were certainly in existence when it came to how the team would perform, but each and every athlete showed dedication to the game, and did their part to help the team maintain its level of prominence.

New Head Coach Jonathan Harder was named into his role in early August, and has since had the pleasure of watching this team develop a strong and unified bond, which only further aided to its success.

“The whole team has this common sense of unity and are very driven to be the best team they can be. That is something that I inherited, it has been a part of the program, I really tried to focus on that,” said Harder. “Work on team bonding but also work on tactics that we have not done before. We gave up some easy goals the first couple of games, but we had eight shutouts. I was really happy to see that. It has been really fun to be a part of because of the program I inherited to begin with.”

One of the season’s accomplishments Harder was sure to highlight was when the Huskies posted a shutout vs. East Lyme, a team they had given up eight goals to a season ago.

After finishing the regular season with a record of 11-1-4, Morgan entered the SLC Tournament as the No. 1 seed, heavily favored to take home the trophy. After receiving a bye in the quarterfinals, the Huskies took on the Portland Highlanders in the semifinal round on Oct. 30, grabbing a 2-1 overtime win in the contest. Junior Rachel Spaziano scored Morgan’s game-winning goal.

Leading the charge this fall for the Huskies were four senior captains, in Glenda Zhiminaicela (midfielder), Maeve Madura (forward), Lily Tanner (midfielder), and Mia Digiandomenico (defender). Each of them stepped up on the biggest stages, finding ways to come up and deliver in the big, pressure-filled moments.

“I think they all lead in their own way, but certainly when the whistle blows everybody is committed to challenging the opponent and be the best versions of ourselves every second of the game,” said Harder. “Maeve finds ways to score goals when we need them. When we need a defensive play, everyone is there, no matter if they are a captain, junior, or senior.”

Despite the fact that Zhiminaicela has not played for half of the season due to an injury, she was still a valuable contributor for the team upon her return.

“She only played for half of the season, however, has been back since the beginning of October, and is just getting back to being fully healthy. We are looking forward to her contributions,” said Harder. “Adding another player to the midfield that we are really lucky to have, it keeps us going from the first minute to the last because we have players like her in the middle.”

Sadie Passante (sophomore, midfielder), Spaziano, and Cora Deming (sophomore, defender) have also been key contributors to Morgan’s dominant season on the turf, and Harder enjoyed seeing the no-quit mindset they displayed and projected onto their teammates.

“Sadie has just had incredible work put out on the field, she is the player that won’t quit, and she is a very talented soccer player on top of it. She shows her leadership just by working as hard as she can,” said Harder. “Rachel is pretty much cut from the same cloth; she has a knack for getting to the goal. Cora is a great defender in front of the goal and in front of our back defenders. She attacks a lot for us coming in and back from the defensive areas.”

Speaking more to the camaradie among the coaches and players, Harder believes the family-like atmosphere is what set the Huskies apart from other teams in the conference, and they stayed positive and showed growth even through the contests that they weren’t at their best.

“There has been such a great rapport amongst the coaching staff and the players, it is kind of one big family. We have not had any huge obstacles, but we did lose our last regular season game to Cromwell,” said Harder. “That was a bit of a wake up call to us, because that was one of those games where we were not playing our best, we did not come out strong.”

In addition to claiming the Shoreline crown for the third-straight season, there were also several players that received conference recognition for their individual efforts and hard work. Those players were Passante (named First Team All-Conference), Spaziano (earning Second Team All-Conference honors), and Zhiminaicela (receiving an Honorable Mention to the Shoreline Conference Team).

At the Indian River Complex on Nov. 3, Morgan faced No. 2 seed Lyme-Old Lyme in a fight to the finish, a game in which the Huskies completely shut every door on their opponent, completing a 5-0 shutout for the victory. Top contributors from the contest on Morgan’s side included Madura, Zhiminaicela, Ainsley Lyon (sophomore, midfielder), Spaziano, and Passante, all scoring for the Huskies.

“Obviously, the game went well for us. We were able to work on our attacking leading up to the game, and I think it really showed,” Harder said. “We had five different goal scorers, so that makes us very hard to defend. On the other side of the ball, we held Old Lyme to four shots, all in the first half. We performed well from beginning to end, and exceeded the expectations of our game plan. Honestly, everyone stepped it up. But our senior captain Glenda Zhiminaicela really did an amazing job of covering the midfield for us. When she wasn’t distributing on the attack, she was coming out of nowhere to effortlessly dispossess opposing players. She wasn’t able to start playing until the middle of the season due to an injury, and it’s been a steady recovery back to her own high standard of play. She has really come back into form for the SLC Tournament, and the team is excited to have her back in her prime for the Class S Tournament.”

The Huskies will have a bye week during the first round of the Class S State Tournament. They will begin play in the second round against either Old Lyme or Wolcott Tech on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

Harder is assisted on the sidelines by Bill Lyndsay (assistant coach) and Fred Franzoni (junior varsity coach).

The Huskies full team roster is comprised of Emily Andino (senior, forward), Zhiminaicela, Madura, Tanner, Digiandomenico, Passante, Deming, Spaziano, Riley Febbroriello (sophomore, midfielder), Kate Gardner (sophomore, forward), Liliana Luciani (junior, defender), AJ Luke (senior, forward), Lyon, Kayla Mullane (junior, midfielder), Gabriella Navarra (junior, defender), Liliana Novicki (junior, goalkeeper), Addison Reed (sophomore, midfielder), Olivia Ruotolo (junior, forward), Madelyn Sacta (senior, goalkeeper), Liliana Torres (senior, defender), Samantha Way (senior, goalkeeper), Nora Winsor (freshman, forward), Nathalie Avila-Hernandez (freshman, midfielder), Jacquelyn Ciarleglio (sophomore, forward), Emerson Dunning (freshman, forward), Madeleine Grenon (freshman, defender), Katrina Harris (freshman, goalkeeper), Emma Holecz (freshman, defender), Gwneyth Madura (freshman, defender), and Breanna Moore (sophomore, midfielder).