HARTFORD – Molly Benson heard the announcer counting down. She was running down the side of the field and there were 10 seconds left in the Class LL girls soccer championship game against St. Joseph at Trinity Health Stadium Saturday night.
Her older sister Kaylee, a senior for Mercy, was on the other side of the St. Joseph goal. She vaguely heard the time being counted down too as Molly, a sophomore, crossed the ball to her.
The Bensons had done this before, just not with a state title on the line. Mercy had scored before in the last few seconds of a game, but not in the last second and not against a team the caliber of St. Joseph, which had won state titles the last three years.
But that was what happened. Kaylee headed the ball back across the front of the goal to Molly. With one second left in the game, Molly lofted the ball over St. Joseph goalkeeper Helena Kaczmarczyk’s outstretched hands and the ball went into the back of the net and Molly quickly found herself under a pile of her teammates.
No. 2 Mercy won its third state title since 2021, this time in Class LL, 2-1 over a stunned St. Joseph team that had last year’s state Gatorade Player of the Year Alexa Pino, and had only lost one game, the FCIAC tournament championship, on penalty kicks. Mercy won state titles in Class M in 2021 and 2022. St. Joseph was the defending Class LL champion and won Class L titles in 2021 and 2022.
Molly Benson scores in literally the last second of the game and Mercy knocks off St Joseph 2-1 for the Class LL girls soccer title #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/Ve036Mk4wP
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) November 17, 2024
“I was so shocked and so excited I got it in,” Molly said. “I just shot it. Yeah, I heard him counting down, ’10 seconds…’
“It’s amazing. We played them at the beginning of the season for a scrimmage and we lost 1-0 so it’s amazing to come and win against them in the finals. I’m still in shock but I’m so happy. I can’t wait to celebrate with my team.”
Pino, who will play at South Carolina next year, scored with 23:22 left in the first half and Mercy (22-0-1) went into the locker room at halftime trailing 1-0.
“I said to them, ‘Forty more minutes of soccer this season, let’s play the full 40 minutes and leave it out there. Let’s not have them push us around like they did in the first half, let’s be stronger and play with urgency,’” Mercy coach Marcus Harley said. “And, hey – scoring at the end of the game is not new to us. We’ve scored with seven seconds left and 13 seconds left.
“Our girls know the game’s not over until it’s zeroes on the clock. They don’t give up.”
Molly Benson scored off a corner kick with 28:42 left to tie the score. Then the game was back and forth. Both teams had chances. Both goalkeepers made saves.
With 10 seconds left, freshman Peyton Hussey had a breakaway. She brought the ball down and tried to pass it to Molly Benson but a defender kicked it back so she headed it to Molly. With six seconds left, Molly kicked it to her sister. With four seconds left, Kaylee headed it back to Molly. The ball went off her foot with about two seconds left and into the goal with one second left. Then she started jumping and Kaylee came over and hugged her and then everybody was jumping up and down and falling down in sheer joy and amazement.
“I knew we had this,” Kaylee said. “I’m not surprised my sister was able to put that one in the back of the net off my head. I’m so proud of her. We all worked our butts off to be here, we worked our butts off in this game and we gave it all til literally the last second and put it away.”
