In honoring its rich soccer history, Glastonbury hopes to repeat it

For the first few weeks of the season, Glastonbury (Conn.) and Farmington swapped the top ranking in state coaches boys soccer poll. Glastonbury placed as high as 16th in the country in MaxPreps' national computer rankings.

This is the sort of thing that coaches such as Glastonbury's Mark Landers doesn't take seriously at this time of year. He said his players were probably almost completely unaware of it.

"When that kind of stuff happens, we never really talked about it," Landers said. "We're so focused on day-to-day activities, I don't even think our guys know that it's out there, which is OK. That's where you want to be when all's said and done."

That lofty acknowledgement ended with a loss on Oct. 5 to Central Connecticut Conference opponent and big rival Farmington, 2-1 in overtime on the road. Still, Glastonbury (9-1-1, now ranked No. 4) remains at least among the top five teams in the state, and has to be taken seriously for a deep Class LL tournament run.

Landers said there is work to do, though, for his team to reach its potential. Glastonbury returned 18 players this fall after losing in the first round of the tournament in 2012.

"We're talented. We need to play a little quicker at times," Landers said. "We're a little bit selfish with the ball. If we can get it off our foot in two or three touches and play more together as a team, we'd become very dangerous. There is an immediate sense that we need to accomplish something better for our fans that supported us last year."

To get his team motivated, Landers has looked to the program's past for inspiration. Each week, he goes back into Glastonbury soccer books dating to the 1980s, with recaps of each season. Landers picks a team each week that he and his team try to honor by reading background information on them.

"Try to bring a little tradition back into the program," Landers said.

Landers said he has brought some past players back as well. He had Dan Heffernan, who played on the 1999 Glastonbury state championship team, talk to the current group, as well as Jon DeCasanova (2008 state runner-up team), who had spent several years recently in the hospital with aplastic anemia.

Over the last 45-plus years of boys soccer at Glastonbury, the team has compiled a 548-156-86 record at the varsity level, under both Landers and Ken Mehler.

"Really to hear from both of those guys, maybe a little more so Jon, seeing what the program meant to those guys in terms of real world experiences was something else," Landers said.

Landers said he looks to his trio of captains for leadership of the 2013 Tomahawks: senior goalie Chase Conway, junior Tyler Peterson in backfield, who is in his third year on varsity, and senior Evan Hassett, a central midfielder and the team's leading scorer with eight goals.

Unfortunately, Hassett injured his shoulder in the Farmington loss, and Glastonbury may be without him for a couple of weeks.

"We're hoping it's only two weeks," Landers said. "At this point in the season, two weeks is a lot of time, and anything more than that would be really hurtful."

To pick up the slack, Landers is looking to senior midfielder/forward Evan Grenus (five goals), senior midfielder Gustavo Firnhaber (five goals), senior forward/midfielder Chris Lockwood (four goals) and senior forward Hunter DeCarolis (two goals).

"All four seniors are really capable of raising their game to the next level. They need to show more consistency in practice and take on that load," Landers said. "I don't think you can replace (Hassett) with one guy."

Landers, who has three Class LL championships in five final appearances since 1999, characterizes the Farmington loss as another classic matchup between the two premier programs. Glastonbury defeated Farmington 2-1 in the 2005 LL final and then lost to the Indians 2-1 in the 2008 title game. The teams have had many close regular-season and tournament matchups.

"I don't know how many years we go back but it seems like every time we play each other it's going to go one way or the other and go right down to the wire," Landers said. "This game was no different.

"We had a streak four or five years ago where we had their number, almost the same way that they've got our number right now. We were always winning those one-goal affairs and definitely the tide has shifted a little bit. It's great for the sport. There were 1,300 people there the other night. If we're able to play again at some point, who knows how many would come to watch that game."

Glastonbury has regular-season challenges ahead with five games remaining. It took care of another one, East Catholic, on Wednesday in a 5-0 road win in Manchester. On Thursday it faces East Hartford, which tied Glastonbury 1-1 on Sept. 18.

"Anytime you go second time around in the league, things are going to be different for everybody," said Landers, whose team is currently in first place in the CCC North. "Teams are going to make adjustments towards us, and to be honest, we're still trying to make our own adjustments. We're just trying to get better. We want to secure a league title. Every game for us down the stretch is going to be important. We want to be CCC North champs."

Paul Rosano, the former assistant sport editor of The Hartford Courant and sports editor of The New Haven Register, is a MaxPreps contributor. He may be reached at pjrosano@cox.net.