By Michael Letendre
EAST LYME – The Bristol Eastern boys soccer team – ranked No. 24 in the Class L playoff field – left it all on the pitch in first round play on Monday against No. 9 East Lyme.
And eighty minutes wasn’t enough to determine a winner.
The squads battled into double overtime, over a grueling additional twenty minutes of play, but East Lyme scored early in the second OT to ultimately snare a 2-1 win.
Eastern ended the year at 6-8-3 while East Lyme (13-3-3) moved to 13-3-3 and went on to play No. 8 Notre Dame of West Haven on Wednesday.
The first half was scoreless with both teams taking some shots, but neither could manufacture a goal scoring combination.
The only dangerous strike for the Vikings was a Reid Dowling shot that hit the top of the Lancer crossbar, going up and over it.
On the flip side, Eastern’s Eddie Ansah, Tyler Borry, and Anthony Rogers lofted some shots that were handled by East Lyme goalie Connor Piper (nine saves) over that same first period stretch.
And going into the second forty, the Vikings struck early to snare the initial advantage.
Just three minutes into the second half, East Lyme’s Gavin O’Brien got free on the top of the Eastern goal area, took a pass, and hit a hard shot into the net – propelling the Vikings to a 1-0 edge.
However, with about 18 minutes remaining in regulation, Eastern snared the game-tying score.
Justin Sanchez took a Liam Sanchez-Barreto pass near midfield and made a run up the right side.
Sanchez found Connor Policarpio cutting in and sent him a pass.
Just above the penalty area, Policarpio drilled a solid shot inside the near post to knot the score at 1-1.
It was Policarpio’s team-leading 14th goal of the campaign.
With five minutes to go in regulation, Policarpio nearly scored again as he sent a lofted shot that Piper was just able to tip over the bar for a big stop.
The game remained 1-1 at the final horn of regulation as the match moved into multiple overtimes.
Both teams had longer shots and a few corner kicks in the first overtime but neither team scored over the ten-minute set.
With just about a minute gone in the second overtime, Eastern pushed up the attack but East Lyme countered quickly.
Apolonio Montejano beat two defenders on a break and tucked in a shot past Eastern goalie Peyton Cummings (six saves) on the near side of the Lancers’ net for the game winner.
Eastern pushed up attackers after the Vikings’ goal but couldn’t generate a sharp shot over the final nine minutes – falling 2-1 in the end.
“It was an even game with both teams fighting for the ball throughout,” said Eastern coach Bill Sweet. “We rallied in the second half and worked right to the end. It’s a credit to the players who never quit throughout the season, even with this being the toughest schedule we’ve ever had.
“Even in the tournament, we started with East Lyme, who just won the ECC large division title last week in the championship game.”
The match was the final scholastic game for Eastern seniors Carlos Portillo, Tyler Borry, Justin Sanchez, Cody Greger, Connor Cyr, Ousamae Ba, Connor Policarpio and Evan Prince.
“These seniors have been through a lot – the championship season of 2019, the Covid years, and the two years of a most challenging schedule,” said Sweet. “We’re going to miss these warriors.”
