Defense, goalie Cam Weibel lead Darien past Wilton for FCIAC championship

NORWALK — The Darien defense contained Wilton in the FCIAC final on Saturday, bent but never allowed the Warriors a lead. The defense helped goalie Cam Weibel to MVP honors. The defense scored one of the game’s biggest goals. Darien pulled away after Wilton tied the FCIAC boys lacrosse championship early in the fourth quarter to defeat Wilton 12-6 in front of a crowd around 1,500 at McMahon’s Casagrande Field, defending their title and heading into the CIAC tournament as the state’s No. 1 team. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a long season. This is what we’ve been looking forward to the whole time,” said Weibel, who made 10 saves. “But it’s not over yet. We’ve got states.” After standout Andy Demopoulos graduated last year, Weibel, a senior, was among those competing for that spot. Sophomores Carter Hagen and Cian LeVine were in it as well. Weibel had gotten the bulk of the play early and grabbed hold of the job. “He’s been doubted by everyone because he hasn’t been, I guess, Andy Demopoulos,” said senior defender David Evanchick, “but he doesn’t need to be. He played amazing today. “They got a couple of garbage goals there, but Andy” — he caught himself; hey, Demopoulos had only been The Guy for the past three years — “Cam stood on his head. He was MVP and completely deserved it. He made save after save after save.” He made saves right to the end, Evanchick noted, when Weibel stopped Charlie Rath. Third-ranked Wilton (15-4), which moved up to No. 2 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll after its semifinal win over Staples, tied the game at 6 when Grant Masterson scored twice in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. Wilton’s Spencer Liston won his ninth consecutive faceoff after the second goal. But Darien got the ball back. Finn Pokorny fed Wyatt Bowman at the crease to reclaim the lead. Darien’s Tighe Cummiskey lost only one more draw. And after Joe Cesare gave Darien (17-2) a two-goal lead and the top-seeded, top-ranked Blue Wave won the draw and called time out, Evanchick had the ball at midfield for the restart. No one covered him, even after he ran it up the left side. “I barely shoot the ball. I think I had four goals on the year,” Evanchick said. “I didn’t want to shoot it, but I went down, no one was there — I mean, I had to. Let it loose.” He made it 9-6, and the Blue Wave scored two more in the next three minutes to put it away. “Just a couple dropped passes, couple of little mistakes, a couple of blown coverages, and they got the momentum,” Wilton coach Steve Pearsall said, who has led the Warriors to two of the past three FCIAC finals. “That’s what (the Blue Wave) do. They capitalize on that. They’ve been doing that for years.” PLAYER OF THE GAME Cam Weibel got the MVP honors with 10 saves, and he credited the defense in front of him for letting that happen. “They gave me the easy shots, the easy looks. They just played an outstanding game,” he said, running down five long-poles and shouting out the defensive midfielders. IN MEMORIAM The game was originally scheduled for Thursday night but was moved to Saturday. The funeral for Darien student Hayden Thorsen, who died last weekend, was Thursday. CLOUDS AND SUN The FCIAC moved the 11 a.m. start up 15 minutes for a little margin for error to get the game in before afternoon thunderstorms. It worked so well that the sun came out at halftime to turn a muggy day a little nastier. At least one player needed a few minutes in the shade to recover. DODGING DANGER Wilton had just scored to cut Darien’s lead to 4-3 early in the third quarter when Cummiskey was flagged for unnecessary roughness after a heavy, late hit on Liston. But the Warriors only managed one goal, Charlie Johnson’s third, on the three-minute, locked-in man advantage, and Darien reclaimed a two-goal lead to take to the fourth quarter. HISTORY Darien won its 19th FCIAC championship, all since 1992. Wilton, the state’s and conference’s first great power, has not won the tournament since 1999. This was the seventh FCIAC final between the two schools but the first since 2004, which had been Wilton’s last final appearance until 2019, when it upset the No. 1 Blue Wave 4-3 in the semifinals before losing to New Canaan. QUOTABLE “It’s a program rich with goalies. It’s an honor to get into even one game, and I guess here we are.” —Weibel mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp DARIEN 12, WILTON 6 WILTON1 1 2 2—6 DARIEN2 2 2 6—12 Records: Wilton 15-4; Darien 17-2. Scoring: W—Charlie Johnson 3 goals, Grant Masterson 2g, Ben Calabrese 1 goal 1 assist, Michael Wall 2a; D—Matt Minicus 2g 1a, Finn Pokorny 1g 2a, Christian Alliegro 2g, Joe Cesare 2g, Wyatt Bowman 2g, Brady Pokorny 1g, David Evanchick 1g, Riley Strub 1g, Patrick Thurlow 1a. Goalies: W—Colin Lenskold (9 saves); D—Cam Weibel (10). Shots: W—25; D—35.

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