NEW BRITAIN – It was a battle of the youth soccer titans, with the Newtown Vipers (59-4-6 over the last two years) and Farmington (70-4-5 during the same period) squaring off on Saturday for the right to display the CJSA State Cup.

And with a convincing 5-1 win, it was the Vipers who won the right to display the cup (named in honor of Jim Onalfo) for the next six months (until fall).

The U11 state tournament field of 45 teams began to get whittled down back on May 5, when the tournament began. Over the course of the last seven weeks, the Vipers defeated Farmington (B), Wilton, Brookfield, Trumbull and Farmington (A) enroute to the championship.

The Vipers scored 29 goals in Cup competition while allowing just five (two of which were off penalty kicks). In a true test of the team concept, nine different Vipers scored and three different players shared time in the goal.

That team concept helped the Vipers take the Farmington attack out of the match and then produced a balanced offensive push that Farmington could not counter. Newtown knew that Farmington was a scoring machine, so the game plan for the match was to dominate on defense early. Special assignments were given to specific players on the Viper squad.

Newtown had not faced Farmington before, so the Vipers used the early minutes to gauge their opposition’s talent level and strengths. Coach Peter D’Amico then made quick field adjustments. Alex Bowen was assigned the duty of marking the center midfielder and Kevin Davies was set to the task of stopping the other centermid.

Farmington capitalized on an early handball by Newtown in their box and the resulting penalty kick got the momentum moving in Farmington’s favor. Newtown was out hustled to the ball and on the hot morning the extra substitutions for Farmington seemed to help with fresh legs entering at all times.

Chris Meier, sweeping for Newtown in front of goalie Danny Smith, tightened up the defense and – along with Mat DeBrantes and Chris Schreiber – shut Farmington down for the remaining 35 minutes in the half.

With their offense at bay, Newtown’s midfield began to take control. Justin Miller laced a long ball that just whistled over the crossbar and with that close call the Viper’s came alive. Minutes later, Miller found the upper corner of the net to put Newtown back in the match, 1-1, with only four minutes left in the 1st half.

The second half was all about the team as Newtown took control of the half early when D. Smith handled several weak shots and played the ball back into the Viper offense. After just seven minutes, Anthony Florez used his speed and dribbling skill to beat several defenders in the box, fake a shot near the post, and then lace the ball into the far side netting.

With only a 2-1 lead, the Vipers knew that they had to play with caution but when stopper Davies lifted a long ball, from 25 yards, over the Farmington keeper’s hands, the Vipers felt that the match was theirs.

Jason Smith and Drew Taylor helped keep the midfield steady along with Ethan Canfield, Max Hoagland and Nick Kallivrousis who dominated the outside. Florez added another score for Newtown with a shot inside the box that again found the nylon. Kevin Troy pushed the Viper offense with his smooth runs down the right flank into the corner that resulted in many a crossing balls, created strong scoring chances for the Vipers.

As the minutes wore down Farmington pulled everyone up and tried to attack with a feverish pace but the confident Viper defense handled every ball and kept the Viper counterattack alive. Bowen then placed a long ball behind the Farmington keeper who also was pushed way up, trying to help the offense.

Other than the penalty kick, Farmington could not penetrate the Newtown defense to get close enough to create any chances.