Playing with a chance to clinch a berth in the conference playoffs, the Wilton High boys soccer team was unable to seal the deal Monday, losing to Trumbull, 2-1, at Kristine Lilly Field.
The Warriors (7-5-3) are now seventh in the FCIAC overall standings with 24 points, one point ahead of Staples and two points ahead of Fairfield Warde. The top-eight teams at the end of the regular season qualify for the FCIAC postseason.
Wilton will have another opportunity to secure a playoff spot in its regular-season finale against Danbury (11-1-3) on Wednesday at home.
In Monday’s game, it didn’t take long for the Warriors to see that Trumbull (6-7-2) wanted to get the win it needed to qualify for the state tournament, as the visitors netted a goal in the first minute.
The Wilton defense, which has been pretty solid all year, got caught ball watching and watched Trumbull’s Daniel Russo get by the backline for a quick 1-0 advantage. Russo drilled a shot off the hands of Wilton goalie Will DeSantis for the score.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Russo struck again on duplicate play in the 19th minute, giving his team a 2-0 lead, which they carried into halftime.
“We had bad positioning on both the goals,” said Wilton central defender Patrick Prinner, a co-captain. “I got caught up field on the first goal and didn’t get back in time.”
Prinner knew how important Monday’s game was for Wilton’s FCIAC hopes. “It’s really going to hurt if we don’t make it,” he said. “We started out the season 5-0-1 and now we have gone 1-5-2 since then.”
The Warrior team that took the field Monday was clearly not the same squad that had played Norwalk to a 0-0 tie on Friday. The intensity, focus and physical play displayed in that game were nowhere to be found against Trumbull.
“I just don’t understand why these kids couldn’t get up for this game with what was riding on it,” said Wilton head coach Jim Lewicki. “It’s frustrating to figure out what the coaching staff has to do to motivate the team.
“I love these kids; they’re a great bunch of kids and they shouldn’t be 7-5-3,” added Lewicki. “Again tonight we put ourselves in a hole early and we couldn’t get out of it.”
The Warriors did get one goal back in the 50th minute to make it 2-1. Eric Pelletier went short on a corner kick to Jack Brandt, who lofted a ball in front of the goal that found the head of Prinner, who popped it into the net. But the hosts were not able to score an equalizer.
DeSantis was credited with five saves in goal for Wilton.