Glastonbury Girls Capture Class LL Soccer Crown

NEW BRITAIN, CT — The third-seeded Glastonbury Tomahawks are once again the best big school soccer team in the state.

Samantha Forrest's goal off a Mackenzie Baker assist with 5:38 left in the game gave Glastonbury a 1-0 win over the Knights at Willow Brook Park's Veterans Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The win, which gave Glastonbury (18-1-1) its first state title since 2016, avenged a 3-0 loss to Southington earlier in the season.

"We learned from the first time we played them," Glastonbury coach Joe Finocchiaro said. "We had a completely different set-up and we were missing two players. This was a completely different team."

Both teams—neither of which had given up a goal in the state tournament—continued to frustrate each other through the first 74-plus minutes of play.

When Forrest—who had a breakaway chance in the first half, only to kick it directly at the goalkeeper—worked a nifty give-and-go with Baker late in the second half, she made it pay off by finding the back of the net.

"It was crazy," said Forrest, who missed the first meeting between the two teams because she was competing with the U.S. National Lacrosse team. "I passed the ball to (Baker) and saw the open lane between the defense. It's something we practice all the time. She passed it back to me and I was able to get it from there."

Her first-half miss was in her mind as she broke in on goal.

"The first goal, I was telling myself, 'I can't miss,'" Forrest said. "I just got in my own head. On the second one, I just said I had to do it for my team."

From there, the Tomahawks completed the shutout as goalkeeper Charlotte Bassett and defenders Baker, Caroline Kearns, Julia Haussmann and Sophia Desaulniers pitched their fourth straight state tourney shutout.

All told, Glastonbury's defense has given up just one goal since its 3-0 loss to Southington back on Oct. 18.

"We needed that loss to figure out what we needed to do," Baker said. "It was a defining loss. We needed to fix some things and that really helped us."

Bassett had three saves for Glastonbury.

For the Knights, goalkeeper Emily Eigo had five saves.

Top-seeded Southington finished the season 17-1-2.

"We played against a great team," Southington coach Mike Linehan said. "Give Glastonbury all the credit. We had some chances. Not enough. I thought we didn't play our possession game like we normally do. They just took us out of our game."

Story reported by John Nash