Lyman Memorial wins forfeit in Class S opener
Holy Cross forfeits its first-round victory after a suspended player sits on the bench, complicating an already disputed penalty shootout.
By Adrian Kovalenko ·
Lyman Memorial secured a forfeit win over Holy Cross in their CIAC Class S first-round soccer match on Saturday. The victory was confirmed by the CIAC in a release on Monday, awarding the result to the No. 20 seed. The loss came after a Holy Cross player who was under suspension was present on the bench during the contest in Waterbury.
Mike Giampetruzzi, the athletic director at Holy Cross, stated that the player received two yellow cards in a previous NVL tournament quarterfinal loss. According to Giampetruzzi, those cards necessitated a suspension for the next game. He acknowledged that he understood the player was suspended but did not realize the rule required the athlete to stay off the bench entirely.
“I knew the suspension was intact for the next game. I didn’t realize he had to not be on the bench,” Giampetruzzi said. “He was nowhere in uniform, he was not part of warmups. He sat on the bench. It was my mistake as the administrator and unfortunately, we lost the game because of that mistake.”
The CIAC boys soccer information packet for the season includes Appendix E, which states in bold that an ejected coach or player cannot be in attendance for the games during their suspension. Giampetruzzi said he was notified of the forfeit on Monday morning. Lyman Memorial will now travel to Stonington on Tuesday to face the fourth-seeded Bears at 4:30 p.m.
The forfeit resolved a dispute over how the penalty shootout ended on Saturday. The teams were tied after five kicks each in the first set. In the second set, Holy Cross missed its first kick while Lyman Memorial scored. Officials declared Lyman the winner using a sudden-death format, despite the tournament rules calling for up to five kicks per team in each set.
Both teams questioned the sudden-death procedure. Giampetruzzi noted that the exchange between his coach and the assistant referee was tense. “It wasn't a great exchange between my coach and the assistant ref,” he said. The officials left the field after making the call. Prior to the forfeit announcement, Lyman Memorial athletic director Brandon Strout told The Day on Sunday that the team was unhappy about the situation.
Strout said his coaches asked officials if the shootout needed to continue, but the officials said the game was over. No one protested on the field, and the players learned of the forfeit about 20 minutes later on the drive home. “We were the underdogs. To have that emotional, good feeling taken away is pretty tough for the kids,” Strout said.
A CIAC official explained that the issue was a failure to follow prescribed tournament procedure rather than a dispute over an in-game ruling. The CIAC had initially ordered the teams to resume the shootout on Monday at 3:30 p.m. at a neutral site in Middletown. That resumption became unnecessary once the forfeit was finalized.
