Pictured: Steve Waters (center) with his Old Saybrook players after Friday’s win at East Hampton. (Contributed Photo)
Steve Waters became the winningest soccer coach in Connecticut high school history Friday when his Old Saybrook boys team defeated host East Hampton 3-1.
The victory was career No. 566 for Waters (566-92-51), who surpassed former E.O. Smith coach John Blomstrann.
“Counting today, this was the 709th game that I coached and I haven’t missed one,” Waters, 63, told reporters afterward. Five hundred was a lot of wins, 566 is a lot more.”
Waters coached for 36 seasons at Farmington before taking over for Sam Barnes at Old Saybrook after the 2019 season, when the Rams repeated as Class S champions.
Waters, who was an assistant on Barnes’ staff in 2019, has won nine state championships in 14 finals appearances – three each in classes M, L and LL. All told, he has 92 state tournament wins.
Kevin DeCapua scored the first goal of Friday’s season/Shoreline Conference opener for both the Rams and Bellringers, and Cameron DeAngelo tallied twice in the second half. Ethan Marshall scored for East Hampton.
On Monday, Old Saybrook visits defending Shoreline champion Haddam-Killingworth (3:45pm) while East Hampton hosts North Branford (6pm).
Elsewhere around the county on Friday:
Coginchaug 1, Westbrook 0
Rockville 4, Cromwell 0
Girls Soccer
Portland 3, Haddam-Killingworth 1
H-K took the lead just 28 seconds into its Shoreline home match at Portland, but Camryn DiMauro scored the equalizer for the Highlanders at 3:36 and Claire Palma provided the go-ahead score at 12:50. Kendra Schoeps scored an insurance goal early in the second half.
Hadley Commerford scored the Cougars’ goal, assisted on a cross from Leah Chester.
“After losing eight seniors from last season, we are still finding ourselves as a team,” H-K coach Mike Shea said. “We started off very strong but quickly fell flat in the game, turning the ball over more than we should have. We readjusted at the half and had a much better second half, setting up several opportunities.”
Portland keeper Allison Scott had 3 saves and H-K’s Brianna Nugent finished with 6.
Related Posts
Coginchaug 6, Westbrook 0
Katie Farr and Jenna DePonte scored two goals apiece to lead Coginchaug in its Shoreline/season opener at Westbrook. Sam Paul and Estella Perez also scored for the Blue Devils. Sophie Farr had two assists for Coginchaug, while Katie Farr, Paul and Taylor Connell had one each.
Westbrook keeper Alexandra Zanzalari had 13 saves on the day. Emma Samperi had 3 for Coginchaug.
Morgan 1, Old Lyme 1
Kate Walsh scored unassisted for Old Lyme in the 55tt minute, but Katie Martin assisted Caeley Ayer 10 minutes later to help Morgan to the Shoreline tie on the road. Old Lyme outshot Morgan 8-7.