Lewis Mills’ Hayden Melingonis (17) keeps the pressure on Nonnewaug’s Weston Prechti in Wednesday’s non-league game in Woodbury. (Photo courtesy Steve Barlow)
By STEVE BARLOW
Special to The Collinsville Press
WOODBURY, Sept. 24, 2025 – For Ben Kulas, Minortown Road might as well have been called Memory Lane on Wednesday afternoon. He remembered the scenery along the way, and when he arrived at the driveway of Nonnewaug High, the Lewis Mills boys soccer coach chuckled to himself, “I know this place.”
“It was great,” Kulas added. “(Nonnewaug coach Toby Denman) is a great friend of mine. It felt good to come back.”
It felt even better when the Spartans pinned a 2-0 loss on the Chiefs in a recreation of the heated rivalry that once existed when both schools belonged to the Berkshire League.
Year after year, Mills and Nonnewaug were the Yankees and Red Sox of BL soccer, but that ended when Mills joined the Central Connecticut Conference in 2019. The Spartans’ last visit to Woodbury was a 1-0 state tournament loss six years ago.
Last season, the two sides played a scoreless tie in Burlington.
Mills (4-2-1) made sure that wouldn’t happen again. Only 3:15 into the game, Luca Rubbo launched a corner kick from the right flag that Hayden Melingonis headed into the net for a 1-0 lead.
Despite dominating play, though, the Spartans went to the break with just a 1-0 lead.
“Sometimes, when you score early, it gives you that mental ‘Oh, we’re invincible,’ and then you’re not,” Kulas said. “They reverted to kicking it around with their buddies. They were holding the ball too long. I was a little frustrated. To their credit, they were much better in the second half.”
Mills struck again at the 32:57 mark of the second half. From midfield, Rubbo lofted the ball into the box, where Ian Mayes booted it in.
“Our attack sets me up in the right spots,” said Mayes. “We’ve got a senior captain (Melingonis) and a junior captain (Dom Wroblewski) in the back that are keeping our team together.”
In the renewal of an old Berkshire League rivalry, Lewis Mills (in white) beat Nonnewaug on Wednesday, 2-0. (Photo courtesy Steve Barlow)
The Chiefs (6-1-1), ranked sixth in the Class M-S coaches’ poll, suffered their first loss.
Less than 24 hours after a 1-0 win over Terryville, Nonnewaug was short-handed with injuries to three starters, Cash Medonis, Max Nichols and Vincenzo Rose. A fourth, Josh Zapatka, was playing ill.
Then, six and a half minutes into the game, starting goalie Rolfe Brindle went down with a foot injury. With the backup keeper already out, Denman asked a starting back, sophomore Jacob Ciarleglio, to go between the posts.
“He said, ‘Me?’ I said, ‘Yup, athletes do athlete things.’ He made three or four really good saves,” Denman said. Ciarleglio finished with seven saves.
“From a heart and guts perspective, I was super proud of the guys out there,” Denman continued. “We had to piece it together. We had guys tasked with doing things they haven’t done a lot before. We had some guys up from the JV, and Jake Cenatiempo was an absolute beast, which is his MO. He’s on the short list of hardest workers that have existed in this program.”
Mills, which won its fourth straight, was missing two starters, Jackson Baltrush and Alex Casavant, although it did have senior goalie Marek Nardi (two saves) back for his second game.
“This was a confidence boost for us for the rest of the season. It’s our third shutout in a row. We’ve got our goalie back, and that gives us a boost,” said Mayes.
“We want to qualify for the (state) tournament, then try to get a home game or two,” said Kulas. “We need two more (wins), then some of the pressure is off. We’ve got some tough games coming up. We’ve got to steal some points and get ranked higher. We know we’re as good as anybody in Class M.”
Lewis Mills 2, Nonnewaug 0
At Woodbury
Lewis Mills (4-2-1) 1 1 — 2
Nonnewaug (6-1-1-) 0 0 — 0
Goals: Hayden Melingonis (LM), Ian Mayes (LM); Assists: Luca Rubbio (LM) 2; Saves: Marek Nardi (LM) 2, Rolfe Brindle (N) and Jacob Ciarleglio (N) 7
