MANCHESTER, N.H. – In yet another twist of fate brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trinity boys’ soccer team got an opportunity to win their first-ever state title at home on Saturday. In the end, it was an opportunity full-taken, winning the NHIAA Division III Championship with a 2-1 victory over Gilford.
Neither team could find a goal in the first half, with Trinity sophomore Nathan Shipman breaking the deadlock six minutes into the second frame after finding a cross from senior Nathan Meeker. Gilford freshman Aiden Bondaz evened up the contest with just over 11 minutes left in regulation, pre-empting any early thoughts of a Pioneers celebration and setting up what would ultimately become a golden goal situation.
As time began to wind down, Shipman found another cross from Meeker. The rest was history.
“I saw the clock and there was less than five minutes, and I did not want to go to extra time or penalties,” he said. “I saw the cross come over and I’ve done that before, just hit it over the goalie a bit and it went in and we went from there.”
While momentum shifted after Shipman’s first goal, both teams had opportunities throughout the contest, a stark contrast between Trinity’s easy earlier playoff victories against Campbell, Mascenic, Conant and Raymond. In those games, Trinity outscored their opponents by a combined 16-1.
Trinity Head Coach Chris Morgan referred to Gilford as the best team they’ve faced this season other than Manchester Central and felt that getting the clinching goal so late in the contest made the victory just a little bit sweeter. Still, that final goal did not come as a surprise.
“Honestly, we were not upset. We just got more hungry, we wanted it,” said Morgan of his squad after Gilford equalized. “We have so much confidence in ourselves that we knew that we’ve been down before and we could come back. You can say that now, but felt we had the opportunity to come back, we had a lot of opportunities (earlier) we didn’t make.”
Gilford Head Coach Dave Pinkham was happy with his team’s performance, which ultimately came down to a just a few missed opportunities where Gilford was unable to capitalize on long aerial passes into scores, perhaps most notably from what turned into a point-blank shot from freshman Tanner Keenan 22 minutes into the first half.
Regardless of the result, the fact that the season happened at all given the pandemic was a victory in Pinkham’s eyes.
“I thank the NHIAA for putting together a season for these kids and a tournament. With everything that’s going on, they needed it,” he said.
Trinity narrowly missed a championship two years ago against Campbell, with Campbell also winning the championship last year against Mascenic.
“I think the kids played so well this year and learned a lot and they’ll come back and be hungry,” said Morgan. “But there’s some great teams in Division III, so I think we’ll have our hands cut out for us.”
Trinity finishes the year 15-2-1 including the playoff wins, with their only two losses coming against Central and their only draw coming against Derryfield.
