Norwalk rallies to tie Greenwich on Senior Night

By Patrick McNamee
Correspondent

NORWALK — When Kenny Doublette scored a breakaway goal with 12:53 left in the game, Greenwich owned a 4-2 lead and seemed primed for its 10th victory of the season.

The only problem was Norwalk’s Andres Torres wouldn’t let it happen.

Torres capped off a hat trick with two goals in the final 3:57, including the tying tally with 2:26 remaining, lifting the Bears to a 4-4 tie Monday night at Testa Field.

The point keeps Norwalk (6-3-5) alive in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference playoff race. If the season were over before Monday’s games, Norwalk and Greenwich (9-2-3) would face off in the No. 2 vs. No. 7 matchup.

“I thought Greenwich deserved to win tonight honestly,” Norwalk coach Chris Laughton said.

“I thought we were outplayed and allowed them to get the ball behind us all night. I thought offensively we did a good job creating and finishing chances.

“And obviously Andres was phenomenal, he wasn’t going to let us lose.”

Torres also assisted on Norwalk’s second goal, which was scored by Nic Zuniga.

Torres scored Norwalk’s third goal off a perfect feed from Chris Puente, who found the junior in the middle of the field with enough space for Torres to rifle a shot past Sebastian Comacho to pull Norwalk within 4-3.

Torres tied the game after getting the ball with space in the middle once again, and enough time to squeeze one more past Comacho.

“I’m disappointed because I felt wedeserved to win, and I’m basing that on the fact that we had at least three to four times as many chances as they did,” Cardinals coach Kurt Putnam said. “But they kept coming and Torres is lethal in front of the net.”

Greenwich jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Norwalk’s senior night, with Doublette knocking in a rebound shot less than five minutes into the contest. Ignacio Assalini, who left the game in the second half with an injury and did not return, upped the lead to two after weaving through three Norwalk defenders less than three minutes after Doublette’s goal.

Greenwich dominated for most of the first half, except for a goal from Torres.

It was more of Greenwich to start the second half, as Norwalk remained listless on both sides of the ball. The Cardinals perseverance paid off in the form of their third goal of the evening, a ball Izzie Hernandez was able to poke past Norwalk goalie Alex Hurd, giving Greenwich a 3-1 lead with 19:33 to play.

As for the prospects of meeting again soon, Putnam was more concerned with his team playing better.

“It doesn’t really matter we need to be more concerned with ourselves,” he said. “Every game in the FCIACs is going to be tough.”

Goals: G– Kenny Doublette 2, Ignacio Assalini, Izzie Hernandez. N–Andres Torres 3, Nic Zuniga. Assists: G–none. N–Torres, Chris Puente, Willy Arbierto. Goalies: G– Sebastian Camacho (5 saves). N Alex Hurd (6 saves)

© Greenwich Time