City Hill Girls Soccer Team Wins NVL Championship in Dramatic Fashion

In its first year of existence, the City Hill Middle School girls soccer team shocked the Naugatuck Valley League by winning the middle school league championship on Monday.

The Cyclones beat previously undefeated Long River Middle School 2-1 to cap off an impressive run through the playoffs in which they beat two teams who had defeated them convincingly during the regular season, said Coach Ron Plasky.

“This was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had coaching,” said Plasky, who has coached various sports in the community for more than 20 years. “To put a game plan together and work on it in practice and have the girls not only believes, but to execute perfectly was amazing to see. It was ridiculous how well they played in the playoffs, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

In Monday’s championship game, Hailey Boulanger opened the scoring at 18 minutes into the game with a beautiful assist from Makayla Teixeira. City Hill took command of the beginning of the second half as Abi Pruchnicki, Macie Best and Cindy Stirk controlled possession at mid-field.

Prucnicki scored at 15 minutes into the second half with an assist from Best. Long River scored with about 10 minutes left, but the swarming defense of Gabby Carrelo, Erin Doris, Bridget Rosikiewicz and Hailey Deiterlbaum played phenomenal defense, while goalie Caitlin May made some great saves to secure the win.

City Hill put together a team for the first time this year and competed against five other teams in the NVL. The girls got a late jump on the season because they started school late due to the high school renovation project. They lost four games during the regular season and ran through the NVL tournament to win the championship, though they were seeded third.

Plasky, who only had soccer coaching experience in a recreational league, said he watched Naugatuck High School boys soccer coach Art Nunes at practice and picked his brain for pointers.

“Like everything else in life, it was a new challenge and I told the team what I don’t know, I will make up and learn with hard work and that by the end of the season, I can guarantee we would be able to motivate the girls and do all of the things a coach does to make the girls better,” Plasky said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the team.”

The team members include: Hailey Boulanger, Makayla Teixeira, Mia Rotatori, Cindy Stirk, Abi Pruchnicki, Macie Best, Gabby Carrelo, Erin Doris, Bridget Rosikiewicz, Hailey Deitelbaum, Hannah Butler, Nicole Rohlman, Sydney Lauer, Jalyssa Holmes, Jenna Rohlman, Nicole Mercer and Caitlin May.

Congrats team!