Heading into the 2020 season, the East Haven boys’ soccer team hadn’t won a Southern Connecticut Conference game since 2015. However, the Yellowjackets put an end to that drought by earning a 3-2 victory over Career-Hillhouse in an away game on Oct. 6. Although the Easties have since taken a few defeats, Head Coach Mike Papantonio was proud of his squad for notching that first SCC win in five years.

“The game itself was a little emotional. They scored the first goal, so you had to fight off the feeling of, ‘Here we go again,’ but we equalized just a few minutes later, and it really settled us down. We needed something good to happen,” said Papantonio. “The boys were excited. It’s not that we didn’t expect it, but it’s uncharted territory for our program. The history wasn’t totally lost on the boys. They felt good about themselves.”

After letting up the opening goal to Career-Hillhouse, East Haven tied the score at 1-1 on the first of senior midfielder Luis Agudelo’s two goals in the contest. At halftime, Coach Papantonio wanted to make sure the Yellowjackets knew that they had the talent to come home with the victory.

“We 100 percent not only belong on the field with those guys, but we felt that we had a strong enough team to come away with a win,” Papantonio said. “We felt we had a lot of the possession. We were pretty strong offensively. There were some mistakes on defense, but those were things you want to take in stride and not get too up or down based on one play. If we played our game and fought for a full 40 minutes, we expected to win.”

After the break, East Haven took a 2-1 lead on a goal off the foot of junior midfielder Anthony Sawicki. Agudelo followed with his second goal of the game to make it 3-1. Career-Hillhouse cut it to 3-2 with a goal in closing minutes, but the Yellowjackets held on for the victory.

Junior forward Brayan Crespo and sophomore forward Christofher Torres both had an assist for the Yellowjackets. Senior goalkeeper Asa Myers made 10 saves to pick up the win in net.

While it was certainly a big victory for East Haven, Coach Papantonio said that his players walked off the field as if it was business as usual.

“It was kind of business-like. It was almost as if we had been there before,” said Papantonio. “It wasn’t one of those things where kids were ripping their shirts off and going crazy, embarrassing the other team. It was like we expected to win.”

Unfortunately for the Yellowjackets, they wound up losing their next three games by taking a 5-0 defeat at Wilbur Cross on Oct. 8, a 5-0 defeat in Branford on Oct. 10, and a 7-0 loss at Daniel Hand on Oct. 13. The team now has a record of 1-3 on the season.

Coach Papantonio said that the Easties are still tinkering with their lineup and that these recent defeats allowed him to evaluate how his team will shape up going forward.

“We’re making some adjustments. We’re moving some of the talent around on the field. We’re going to throw all of our offensive bodies forward now,” Papantonio said. “We had some kids who were plugging some holes based on injuries. We’re going to be going into the second half of the season basically at full strength. We’re going to see if we can just outscore other teams. We’re going to start taking more chances, more calculated risks, and see what happens.”

Even with his team having lost its last few contests, Coach Papantonio said that the 2020 edition of the East Haven boys’ soccer squad features a resilient bunch of athletes. Papantonio added that the Yellowjackets aren’t going to take being on the pitch for granted for a single second this fall, especially since there have been so many questions surrounding the campaign as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It just feels good. There were some early season struggles—some anxiety, some stress that the kids had with so much uncertainty. But these kids are resilient. They persevered. They figured it out,” said Papantonio. “At this point, they’re not taking it for granted. We can’t necessarily guarantee that we’re going to play games next week. It doesn’t take much to shut it down. We’re just keeping them in the moment and having them take advantage of what they’ve got. Don’t take it for granted, show up, and play like it’s your last game.”