WOODBURYー The Nonnewaug boys varsity soccer team is entering the postseason with only one loss on its record.
The Chiefs are 10-1-5 going into the postseason, which begins Friday with a Berkshire League tournament semifinal against Northwestern on Friday at home.
Head coach Toby Denman says they have a serious goal of winning the BL tournament and that the postseason is a big time for them to step up.
“In the postseason, if you end in a tie with overtime and even penalty kicks, you’re still giving yourself a chance to win,” Denman said. “Friday is the semifinals. Our goal is to play in the finals, which hasn’t been done before by us in the three years of [the BL tournament] being around.”
Joshua Kornblut, assistant coach for the varsity soccer team and head coach for the junior varsity team, feels confident in their chances of winning in the playoffs, but the Chiefs need to keep up the pace.
“Obviously, winning is always the goal, but we just need to keep leaving it all out on the field each game,” Kornblut said. “I am hopeful that we will be able to find some success,” Kornblut said. “We do a pretty great job defensively, and in states, if you can keep the other team out of the back of your net, then you set yourself up to move on. There are no ties in the states.”
Denman agrees with Kornblut that their defense is a strong part of their team in general, although he does have concerns about their offense, he thinks they could win it all.
“We have defended well, and we can look forward to using some more improvement in scoring,” Denman said.
Varsity midfielder, Maxim Dmitriyev, has a similar opinion to Kornblut: that they have a chance at winning in the postseason.
“Even though we’re coming into the postseason with five ties, that can’t happen in the postseason, and if there were no ties in the real season, we would have won more of those games we tied, so I’m confident in our chances,” Dmitriyev said. “Our defense is a good part of our game, so if our offense scores one to two times a game, our defense will do the rest of the work.”
The BL tournament final will be played at Nonnewaug on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. Denman wants his Chiefs in that game.
“We are tired of watching other people play on our field [in the championship],” Denman said.
