Jenna Bike and Marissa Grasso scored goals in the second half when the No. 3 seeded St. Joseph High girls soccer team defeated No. 2 seeded Glastonbury High, 2-0, in the Class LL state tournament semifinals at Ken Strong Stadium in West Haven on Monday night.
Coach Jack Nogueria’s Cadets (18-0-1) will play No. 1 Suffield High (19-0-0) on Friday for the state title at a place and time to be determined.
The Wildcats defeated No. 4 Mercy High of Middletown, 3-1 in their semifinal.
“I thought twenty minutes in with their playing one forward and with five back that we were too good of an offensive team not to score,” Nogueria said.
“Cori Scales had a great ball to Jenna (Bike) and then we settled things down.”
Scales delivered a great ball from just inside the Cadet side to Bike, who while on the run managed to get enough of a touch on the ball as she raced by the near post to place it past Tomahawk keeper Ciara Boucher, who had eight saves, four in each half.
The goal came at 28:03 of the second half and Grasso scored the second tally at the 19:49 mark.
It all started with a pass from Sabrina Toole to Christina DiCesare, who was seeing increased playing time after senior striker Sam Grasso was fouled and had to leave the game with a hip injury with 7:23 remaining in the first half.
Three inbounds passes resulted from the foray into the Glastonbury zone, before the Cadets were awarded their first corner opportunity.
The ball was loose in the box, when Sara Chile got a touch to Marissa Grasso, who sent it through a defender and into the net.
Glastonbury, led by stellar forwards Madeline Gray, Mara Cosentino and Madeline Riggott, looked to respond, but couldn’t dent the Cadet defense of Sabrina Toole, Scales, Chille and Adrienne Williams in front of goalie Molly Meehan, who had five saves.
“We had to stay disciplined and stay on our marks,” Toole said. “They were trying to go over the top, so we had to keep our focus.”