It usually takes exceptional leadership from its captains for a team to advance in the postseason and Greenwich High School’s varsity boys soccer team certainly received it in its FCIAC Tournament quarterfinal-round game against Ridgefield.

Senior tri-captain Luca Ferrario recorded a goal in the 24th minute and lone tally stood up for fourth-seeded Greenwich, which held off fifth-seeded Ridgefield, 1-0, in the FCIAC Tournament quarterfinals at Cardinal Stadium on Oct. 28th.

Ferrario scored off an assist from junior Charlie Maniaci, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead on the Tigers in the FCIAC Tournament elimination game.

Following the Cardinals’ quarterfinal-round victory against the visiting Tigers, Ferrario, who produced another stellar performance shared his thoughts on his game-winning goal.

“I played it one two and saw that run through,” Ferrario said. “The second I saw him put his head down I knew he was going to play a little chip to me. So, I ran and from there it was a one-touch place it around the keeper while he came out.”

With their tough triumph against the Tigers of Ridgefield, fourth-seeded Greenwich advanced to today’s (Oct. 31st) FCIAC Tournament semifinals against longtime rival Staples, the No. 1-seed at Fairfield Ludlowe High School.

The game was a rematch of the 2025 FCIAC Tournament final that saw the Wreckers defeat the Cardinals, xxx and Staples was victorious against Greenwich in this season’s semifinal-round showdown, 2-0.

Receiving goals from Lucas Alacron and Adrian Rodriguez near the midway point of the first half, Staples seized a 2-0 lead on Greenwich and proceeded to continue its unbeaten season. The 2-0 triumph moved the Wreckers back into the FCIAC Tournament final where they will play Stamford High School.

The Black Knights of Stamford topped Trumbull, 2-0, in the other FCIAC semifinal. Staples, which has a record of 16-0-1 and Stamford (11-3-3) will play for the FCIAC tourney title on Nov. 4 at Fairfield Ludlowe High School at 6 p.m.

In Greenwich’s FCIAC quarterfinal win versus Ridgefield, the hosts started the game strong, which they of course, set out to do. The Cardinals were paced offensively by Ferrario, senior captain Diego Cordero, Joseph Carroll, also a senior captain and senior Ebrima Touray.

“It feels great, as Greenwich has a standard to get to the semifinals,” Carroll said after the Cardinals’ win over the Tigers. “We said in the pregame speech, this is chapter 2. We have 15 regular season games, you battle it out 15 games, every single game, sometimes three games a week.”

Indeed, Greenwich was the aggressor, setting the tone throughout the field the first 20-plus minutes of the match against Ridgefield.

“I think we had a strong, good 27 minutes and then once we were up 1-0, we started getting a little too comfortable and that’s when the game started coming both ways,” Ferrario noted.

The Cards received another shutout from senior captain Oliver Almeida, who has been outstanding in goal this season. GHS has posted a record of 10-4-3 so far this fall and has registered eight shutouts in the process. Almeida discussed the Cards’ defensive performance over the course of the season after the win versus Ridgefield.

“I’m so proud of us, we’ve gone from three back, to four back, to three back, to four back, to five back one time, but I’m really just proud of everyone,” Almeida said of the squad’s defensive formation. “We took accountability today and it paid off. The first 25, 30 minutes we were dominating and then it kind of slipped a little bit. We got it back, we didn’t have any major mistakes, which led to goals, which was a huge improvement. We were able to recover in the second half and dominate the game again.”

Ridgefield gathered some momentum after Ferrario’s tally off a pass from Maniaci in the 24th minute and applied pressure on the Cardinals during the later portion of the opening half.

However, knowing what was at stake, the members of the GHS team collected themselves at halftime, regrouped and refocused.

“I told them we played well for 28, 29 minutes, we played the way we wanted to play and then we just lost our shape and our work rate,” said GHS coach Kurt Putnam, whose Cardinals also played Staples in the 2025 CIAC Class LL Tournament final. “That’s what I had to get stuck into them in our halftime team talk. It we were going to carry on like that in the second half, we would have lost the game. But they didn’t, at the end of the day, we were as dangerous when we they had 11 men on the field then when they had 10.”

Greenwich was a man-up for quite some time in the second half against Ridgefield, but the Tigers kept it a one-goal game. Still, the Cardinals had a good deal of possession and created chances throughout the second half.

“The hard work is always there, but it’s the idea that it’s the last touch, it’s the finish, it’s the last ball to get that finish,” Carroll said. “You can’t not be satisfied by getting to the semifinals.”

Carroll mentioned how impressed he was with the team’s work rate/effort.

“You saw guys getting calf cramps, you saw guys winning every single header and you saw our striker going left right, left right,” Carroll noted. “In the second half when they should be getting shots on goal, I think we shut them down completely. The last 15 minutes of the first half, we said in our team talk we weren’t winning the second balls.”

Said Cordero: “Our determination and grit impressed me the most. Everyone was dropping back, no one let up, even when they dropped down to 10 men. We still had work to do, even though we were a man-up. We had to work twice as hard and we never let up. They’re very aggressive. They love to contend for second balls and they are just difficult to contain. But I think we did a good job.”

Greenwich now turns its focus on the upcoming CIAC Class LL Soccer Tournament.

Here are photos from Greenwich’s regular season game against Staples earlier this month. All pictures were taken by Antonio Monteiro.

For more pictures from Greenwich’s regular season game against Staples at Cardinal Stadium, please visit: https://www.06878photography.com/high-school-sports-06878-photography-by-antonio-monteiro/soccer/boys-soccer-greenwich-high-school-vs-staples-high-school-at-greenwich-high-on-october-9th-2026