Members of the Northwestern boys soccer team celebrated after winning the Berkshire League tournament championship on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (Steve Barlow/For Hearst Connecticut Media) Steve Barlow Tue, November 3, 2026 at 6:07 AM UTC About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WOODBURY – The Northwestern and Nonnewaug boys soccer teams are evenly matched. In fact, through three games, or 240 minutes of action, this season, they are separated by only one goal. But what a big goal it was.
With 13½ minutes left in Monday's game, senior forward Nick Brodnitzki collected a rebound and rapped it in for the only score in the Highlanders' 1-0 victory in the championship game of the Berkshire League tournament.
With Nonnewaug anticipated to apply to the Naugatuck Valley League for membership sometime this month, there stood the possibility that this was the Chiefs' last BL soccer game. If so, they gave it their all to the end.
Northwestern (16-1-1), the BL champion by virtue of winning the regular season for the first time since 2007, dominated in terms of time of possession, but Nonnewaug (15-3) continually fended off the visitors. That's the Chiefs' specialty; they have 14 shutouts this season.
For the Highlanders, the key is finishing when their scoring chances arise.
"The secret is to have the intensity up and put the ball in the back of the net," said Andy Campbell, Northwestern's 24th-year head coach. "We've had 18 different goal scorers this year. We're just now starting to get a couple of guys stepping up and saying, 'I'll be the man. I'll get it done.' Nick is one of them and that's good. We need them at tournament time."
Reid Nadeau got the winning sequence started for Northwestern when he blasted a shot from 20 yards out that Nonnewaug goalie Liam Cunningham bobbled. The ball bounced to Brodnitzki, who had a wide-open goal in front of him.
"I made sure not to hit it over the bar," Brodnitzki said. "It bounced right on the six. I just knew I had to tap it in. The whole game I'd been crashing it, waiting for that to happen."
The Highlanders then had to survive a couple of prime scoring chances by Nonnewaug down the stretch. The best one was a header by Vincenzo Rose off a corner by Josh Zapatka that Northwestern goalie Lucas Horstmann was just able to deflect over the bar.
"They saw a little more of the ball than we did, but we countered really, really well and had a couple of good opportunities," said Nonnewaug coach Toby Denman. "At desperation time, we were kind of on the edge of celebration and it just didn't happen."
Cunningham had nine saves in goal for Nonnewaug, which is expected to be the fourth seed in Class M, while Horstmann had six for Northwestern, the unofficial top seed in Class S. CIAC pairings will be released Tuesday.
Northwestern senior striker Nick Brodnitzki scored the only goal with 13½ minutes left in the game.
"We already won the league, but this was good to get ready for the state tournament. (Nonnewaug) is really good and they're going to be good next year, too. So, it was a nice test." – Northwestern coach Andy Campbell.
Goals: NW – Nick Brodnitzki. Saves: NW – Lucas Horstmann 6; Non – Liam Cunningham 9.
Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.
This article originally published at Northwestern wins Berkshire League boys soccer title on late goal over Nonnewaug .
Source: Sports
