A high school girls soccer team pretty much cannot have a season better than what the 2023 Cadets of St. Joseph High School had.
Coach Jack Nogueira’s undefeated Cadets won FCIAC and state championships, they were ranked No. 1 in the final state poll and No. 6 in the country in the final national poll.
St. Joseph finished with a 22-0-1 record after its 3-1 victory over Notre Dame-Fairfield in the championship game of the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Soccer Class LL Tournament.
St. Joseph’s junior star Alexa Pino had a goal and an assist to help the Cadets win their third consecutive state championship and their ninth overall state title in school history.
Pino assisted Sara Parker on the first goal 2:30 into the state Class LL tourney final against ND-Fairfield. Pino then netted her goal to give St. Joseph its 2-0 midway through the first half and Taylor Jenkins completed the scoring in the 70th minute for the eventual champions.
After the Cadets won their first 13 games of the season, the host Staples Wreckers battled St. Joseph to a 1-1 draw at Wakeman Field on Oct. 18.
Then the Cadets won their last two games in the regular season, three more games to win the FCIAC championship, and they won their last four games while copping that Class LL crown.
Pino had two goals and two assists to lead St. Joseph to a 4-0 semifinal victory over Ridgefield in the 2023 FCIAC Girls Soccer Tournament and then she set up her freshman teammate, Taryn Czick, for both goals in St. Joseph’s 2-1 victory over Staples in the conference final.
Staples sophomore Natalie Chudowski scored both goals to help the Wreckers advance to the FCIAC final with their 2-0 semifinal victory over Darien.
Staples put forth an excellent challenge to the potent Cadets in the state Class LL semifinals in which Parker netted the game-winning goal in St. Joseph’s 4-3 victory.
The 11 FCIAC teams combined for a 14-10 overall record in that CIAC Class LL Girls Soccer Tournament. The conference had five of the eight teams in the quarterfinals. Staples nipped Greenwich, 2-1, in the quarterfinals to earn its semifinal showdown against St. Joseph.
The Cadets have won all nine of their state championships in three different classes since 2007. They won their two Class LL championships this year and 10 years ago with a great 2013 team. They won two straight Class M championships in 2007 and ’08, and they won three consecutive Class L crowns from 2015-17 and another two straight Class L titles in 2021 and ’22.
St. Joseph was the unanimous choice as the recipient of all 11 first-place votes to secure that No. 1 ranking in the final Connecticut Girls Soccer Coaches Top 10 Class LL/L Poll. The FCIAC had four teams ranked among the top eight. Staples was No. 4, Ridgefield and Fairfield Ludlowe were ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, and Greenwich received the 11th most polling points as one of the three teams statewide in the “Others receiving votes” category.
St. Joseph ascended from No. 9 in the previous poll to No. 6 in the United Soccer Coaches final national poll which was released Nov. 21. Edina (Minn.) finished 22-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation. St. Joseph’s Cadets, who were the only boys or girls’ team from the state ranked among the Top 25 in the national polls, were also ranked No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches Region I poll which included schools from the other five New England states.
St. Joseph and Staples each had four players among the 22 total selected to the 2023 All-FCIAC Girls Soccer First Team.
Pino, Jenkins, Parker, and Helena Kaczmarczyk were St. Joseph’s four first-teamers while the Staples quartet consisted of Natalie Chudowsky, Evelyn Chudowsky, Annabel Edwards, and Coco Crombie.
The 14 other All-FCIAC first-team selections were Anna Gillan and Zoe Desmarais of Ridgefield, Caroline Aponte and Josie Tunney of Darien, Mackenzie Reid and Taegan Bajda of Trumbull, Paige Place and Sydney Patten of New Canaan, Emma Abbazia and Julia Acosta of Greenwich, Caroline Spengler and Kate Martin of Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde’s Phoebe Marsick, and Brien McMahon’s Grace Simpson.
The 22 players selected to the All-FCIAC Girls Soccer Second Team were Julia Nunes and Maeve Matthews of St. Joseph, Baila Kessler and Riley Keane of Ridgefield, Gabby DeBrito of Staples, Fiona Gibbons and Kaitlyn Zizzadoro of Wilton, Ella Peterson and Peyton Bashar of Trumbull, Faith Ortolano and Alivia McDowell of Brien McMahon, Leah DeLaurentiis and Kate Waldron of Fairfield Ludlowe, Meghan Ross and Brooke Wilkowski of Greenwich, Westhill’s Ashlyn Flood, Darien’s Presley Sutter, Danbury’s Samantha Ruffles, New Canaan’s Emma Finnerty, Bridgeport Central’s Josselly Tello, and Norwalk’s Ashley DiLauro.