National News

 November 2, 2009

Insinga's Sixth Title Send Cougars to District 3 Championship next Weekend against Nassau CC in New York

MANCHESTER, CT -MCC scored three times in the second half to beat Bunker Hill CC 3-0 in the NJCAA Division III Region 21 Championship game Sunday afternoon in Manchester.

Had a tournament MVP been named, it likely would have gone to Mariusz Kurzatkowski's (Southington, CT) who scored a pair of goals on Saturday in a 3-0 win over Springfield Tech, then added two more on Sunday in MCC's 15^th shutout of the season.

After a scoreless first half, Kurzatkowski gave MCC (16-1-1) the only goal it would need when he converted a Giuseppe Panajia (Glastonbury, CT) cross pass 2:28 into the second half. Kurzatkowski one-timed the pass with his head into the top left corner in front of stunned Bunker Hill goalkeeper, Joe Parsons, who did not see him.

"We decided early on that we were going with a defensive set," Head Coach Jim Insinga said after winning his sixth Region 21 title in ten years. "That's what got us here. We slowly transitioned from defense to offense as we wore them down with our subs. We gave up three goals the whole year doing that and we will continue to do that through the playoffs."

Kurzatkowski scored his second, and team leading 13^th goal of the season, on a penalty kick in the 76^th minute after Parsons held Aldo Morin (West Hartford, CT) down in the box after an MCC scoring chance. Defensive back Addison Duarte (Waterbury, CT) scored his first goal of the season in the final minute of the game with Parsons acting as an 11^th attacker.

Hami Kara (Wethersfield, CT) made six saves for the Cougars, who move on to the District 3 Championship game next Saturday (November 7^th) at Region 15 Champion, Nassau CC (16-2) aturday in Garden City, NY. Game  time TBA. The winner of that game moves on to the NJCAA Division III National Championship Tournament in Herkimer, NY November 14 and 15.

"At halftime I felt really good," Kara, who allowed just three goals over 18 games and is the top rated goalkeeper in Division III, said. "I could see that we were tiring them out. They were starting to sit back a little bit and we were using our subs. Our defense was shutting them down all afternoon. I figured we would get a goal sooner or later and start breaking them down."

Insinga (115-60-9) is one win away from a third trip to the National Championship Tournament in ten seasons at MCC.

 "We found out that Nassau is an extremely fast and talented team," Insinga said. "Coming out of the New York district is incredibly difficult, so it is going to be a difficult game." MCC went 7-0 on the road this season.

Bunker Hill CC (10-6-1), who beat Benjamin Franklin IT 3-1 on Saturday to reach the championship, has now lost in the Region 21 finals the past five years.