Avon tops South Windsor, earns right to play for CCC South title next week

Avon’s Sarah Thomas (23) scored her tenth goal of the season Thursday against South Windsor as the Falcons remained undefeated in the CCC South with a 1-0 victory.

SOUTH WINDSOR, Oct. 25 – The Avon High field hockey team has put themselves in position to win their first championship in the Central Connecticut Conference.

The Falcons scored when Sarah Thomas’ rebound shot deflected off the stick of a South Windsor player with 17:49 left in the game to lift the Falcons to a crucial 1-0 victory Thursday in CCC South action.

Avon (11-2, 6-0 CCC South) remains undefeated in the CCC South while South Windsor (10-2-1-1, 5-1 CCC South) dropped their first divisional contest.

Avon can win their first CCC crown in field hockey on Wednesday if they beat Southington in the team’s final regular season contest at Ethel Walker in Simsbury beginning at 3:30 p.m. Thanks to rained out games earlier this month, the Falcons must play Simsbury (4-10) on Monday and Enfield (11-1-2) on Tuesday before they can take on Southington (6-7-0-1).

The Falcons were scheduled to face Thomaston on Saturday but they moved the game up to Friday due to the forecasts for heavy rain. Avon won their eleventh game with a 2-1 road victory over the Bears.

Avon took a 1-0 lead over South Windsor on a penalty corner. Leading scorer Paige Deppe (15 goals) got off a shot on the penalty corner that was blocked by a Bobcat defender. The ball deflected right to Thomas, who shot it toward the goal. It deflected off the stick of a Bobcat defender and into the goal for the score for her 10th goal of the season.

Falcon goalie Katherine Pringle and the Avon defense did the job the rest of the way. Pringle had three saves and the Avon defense successfully defended against three penalty corners for South Windsor in the final 13 minutes.

The last league championship for the Falcons came in 2014 when Avon shared the NCCC championship with Granby. Each had records of 11-1. It was the fourth of fourth consecutive NCCC titles for Avon.