HARTFORD – Lewis Mills girls soccer coach Kofi Remey was an All-New England striker at Northwest Catholic his senior year.
But that was almost 30 years ago and he was on the other side of the field Saturday for the Class M girls soccer championship game as his team was set to face Northwest Catholic.
“There’s always a little piece of Northwest in my heart,” Remey said. “Obviously, today I was a Spartan and I had to get the job done.”
Lewis Mills did, behind two goals from junior Lilly Castle, defeating 19th-seeded Northwest Catholic, 2-1, for its first state championship since 2018.
“It’s been a long time coming, honestly,” said Remey, who took over the program in 2019. “Over the years at Mills, I’ve had some really good teams, but we couldn’t get past the quarterfinal, that was the hump, then last year it was the semifinals.
Lewis Mills wins the Class M girls soccer title 2-1 over Northwest Catholic #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/Z8nPtBMxNM
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) November 16, 2024
“Then this year we finally got it done so it feels awesome.”
Junior Maeve Staunton, who helped lead the Lions’ basketball team to two state titles and has committed to play soccer at UConn, assisted on Northwest’s only goal by Elise Nicholas with 12:11 left in the game. Lewis Mills’ defense kept Staunton mostly in check.
Northwest Catholic gets on the board with a goal from Elise Nicholson, Lewis Mills leads 2-1 #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/0ADmBP42Dv
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) November 16, 2024
“She’s an amazing player; she’s really hard to guard,” said sophomore Layla Ljubuncic, who shadowed Staunton throughout the game. “She’s very crafty. She’s a lefty. She’s very fast. Trying to stay in front of her is hard. But I think we had a great plan. We watched a lot of film.”
Remey was pleased with how his defense played against Northwest (12-6-3).
“We had a practice where we focused on making sure we knew where (Staunton) was, then just forcing her on her right foot, because she has a fantastic left foot,” Remey said. “She’s an amazing player and I thought my girls did a pretty good job of trying to stop her as much as we could. She got a break on the left side and put in a cross for that goal.
“But to keep a good player quiet for 80 minutes is tough. I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Lewis Mills graduated four of five players on defense last year so this year’s group was younger and took a while to gel.
“Over the year they kept solidifying as a group and eventually they became a pretty solid unit,” Remey said.
Junior goalkeeper Anna Henry had nine saves for fourth-seeded Mills (17-3-3).
Castle scored her first goal less than two minutes into the second half, then added another with 19:44 left in the game. Nicholson’s goal cut the lead to one with 12:11 left. Henry had punched the ball over the goal off a set piece two minutes earlier to save a goal.
“Our defense is always so solid, especially Anna having the crazy punch-over-the-goal save,” Castle said.
“I’m so happy. I knew we could do it. We’ve been waiting for this for years, ever since we were like 10 years old, we would watch Mills girls soccer and we always wanted to be on this field.”
