Winchester Wins League Title and Finishes Regular Season Undefeated

They waited, first on top of the bench, then they slowly huddled near the edge along the end-line. The outcome of the game was decided at this point. But that did nothing to temper the Winchester boy's soccer team's excitement.

It was more than the final regular season game – a 4-0 win over Woburn. In nearly the nearly 50 years of the program's history it was the first undefeated season for the Sachems. Winchester finished 16-0-2 and in doing so also won the Middlesex League Title.

"In a situation like this you're always waiting for the hammer to drop," Winchester coach Paul Austin said. "But then you look up and there's only one game left. Woburn is a great, athletic team and you look at some of their games and they're blowing teams away."

But it was Winchester that was blowing teams away throughout the course of the season. The Sachems were the team that allowed nine goals through 18 games. They were the team that scored 62 goals. Two ties against Lexington were all the Sachems needed as they took first place with 32 points – two more than Lexington (13-0-4).

"It's an exciting feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach," Austin said of the title and the season. "It's almost surreal. It's hard to believe. Over the 11 years I've been here it's been taken away one way or another. But this is big time."

Senior Captain Ben Bratt started the scoring for Winchester putting a penalty kick in the back of the net. Ryan Connelly added to that lead scoring the first of his two goals after receiving a pass from Ben Davis.Connelly dribbled to the left of the net and squeezed it past the goaltender, going near-post.

The senior captain had a point-blank shot saved early in the second half, but Jeff Tilley finished off Connelly's opportunity, putting the Sachems up 3-0.

Connelly finished off the scoring for Winchester halfway through the second half on an unassisted goal that was deflected off the goaltender.

Even though Winchester seemed in control most of this game and this season, Austin never focused on the possibility of finishing the season undefeated.

"I never really thought about it," Austin said of the prospect of completing an undefeated season. "It wasn't until the end – the last three, four, five games that I started to think about it. We were just focused on playing good soccer. I definitely thought we would win the league when Lexington tied four times – I know we'd need to win out."

While the seedings aren't schedule to be determined until the end of the week, Winchester is expected to be a top seed and most likely have a bye. But now comes the part of the season the Sachems have been waiting for.

"Now it's a new season," Austin said. "We start from scratch. Everything's wiped out. Now we need to play on a different level."