Ellington Survives First Round

In a hard-fought Class M state tournament first round game, came away with the 2-1 victory over visiting Joel Barlow.

“We survived,” Ellington coach Roy Gurnon said. “It was just a terrific team effort. It was a great win. They’re a good team. I told the kids that it’s too bad that we played this game in the first round because both teams are traditionally very good. It was a good game and either team could have won. You know, when you get to the tournament, lots of things happen and I was just so pleased.”

The No. 12 Knights (11-4-1) got on the board midway through the first half when a free kick by Kyle Plickys – from 50 yards out – went off goalie Daniel Johnson’s hands and into the net.

“It was a tough ball,” Gurnon said. “Tough sun, ball’s in the air, it’s moving – but Kyle’s done that before. We told him to shoot and it was a great hit.”

Plickys said he was trying to put it at the goal but didn’t expect it to go in.

“I didn’t even see it go in because there were so many people in the box,” he said. “Then everybody started running at me.”

About five minutes later, a series of nice passes and a well placed ball got Ellington another goal when Cam King put the ball by Johnson.

“It was a very well conceived goal,” Gurnon said.

Only six minutes into the start of the second half, Zachary Rizzo netted a ball to put No. 21 Joel Barlow (8-6-2) on the board.

That goal did not make the Ellington coach happy, but he was pleased with how his team responded.

“The last thing we said at halftime was that the first 10 minutes are important,” Gurnon said. “We get out there, play like crap, and they score a goal. But they hung in there and they had each other’s back. Having a two goal lead and them coming back and getting the goal so soon, it’s really kind of impressive that they just hung in there and did what they had do.”

The wind was blowing pretty hard and Gurnon said that was a factor in the game.

“The wind was actually really tough,” he said. “Obviously it gave them trouble in the first half and it gave us trouble in the second half. It was a pretty crazy second half.”

In the first half, Ellington kept the pressure on Joel Barlow, but in the second half, the opposite was true.

“It did have a lot to do with the wind,” Gurnon said. “Sometimes wind gives you confidence. It wasn’t like everybody just played the ball deep, you just got confidence because you knew you could play it deep. When we had it, we knocked the ball around and we found feet. When they had it, they did the same thing.”

Ellington will now move on to play No. 5 Nonnewaug (11-0-6). That game will be played at Nonnewaug on Monday at 2 p.m.