The Barrington High School boys’ soccer team persevered through 80 minutes of regulation play, 10 minutes of overtime and a tense round of penalty kicks to emerge as the best soccer team in the state in 2025, during a Division 1 championship game played under cool, gray skies at the Rhode Island College soccer stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Facing a North Kingstown team that reached the final game after a series of dramatic, late-game heroics throughout the playoffs, the Eagles seemed to have the game under control with a 1-0 lead and less than five minutes to play in the second half, but they should have known the Skippers would not go quietly. A Barrington turnover near midfield and a quick Skipper counterattack resulted in a long pass to the left side of the Eagles’ net. Goalkeeper Liam Helfrich tried to get to the ball, but it curved away from him and settled on the foot of North Kingstown’s outside midfielder, who buried it in the back of the net with 4:43 left to play.

The late goal tied the game at 1-1 and deflated the Barrington team and stands, where a huge crowd of Barrington students, families and supporters had been poised to celebrate the team’s first championship in a decade. Minutes later, the clock struck 0:00 and the game headed to overtime.

In the first five-minute overtime, the Eagles dominated play and pinned North Kingstown in its own end, but they were unable to break through for a score. The second overtime session was more balanced, but both teams played conservatively, reluctant to give up a goal. Then came the penalty-kick shootout, winner takes all.

First to shoot was Barrington’s Evan Memoli, who was taking his second penalty kick of the game. In the first half, when the game was still scoreless, Barrington was awarded a PK after senior midfielder Andrew Nellis was taken down in the box. Memoli fired a hard shot low to the left, but North Kingstown goalkeeper Ethan Ford dove to his right and made a spectacular save.

This time, Memoli calmly picked a new spot and put the Eagles up 1-0 in the shootout. Then came Helfrich’s time to shine. On North Kingstown’s first shot, the senior captain bounced around the net, waving his arms, before diving to his left and slamming the ball back from whence it came. After the save, he leaped to his feet, pumped his fists, screamed to the sky and sent the Barrington fan base into a frenzy.

Next came Merritt Birbiglia, who buried his shot to put the Eagles up 2-0. North Kingstown’s second shot was much like its first. Helfrich hopped around the cage, dove to his left, knocked the ball away, leaped up with fist pumps and roars, and sent the crowd into a frenzy once again.

Barrington’s third shooter was Brady Andrew, who ripped a shot up into the net to put the Eagles up 3-0. North Kingstown converted its third shot, making the score 3-1 and giving the Skippers some life. However, one more goal would ice the game and give the Eagles the title.

Barrington head coach Don Denham sent senior striker George Zhukov out for the fourth shot and the stadium grew silent. Zhukov placed the ball at the penalty spot and walked back several paces. Instead of running toward the ball, he walked slowly toward it, took a quick step and serenely rolled the ball toward the center of the net. Anticipating a rifle to the corner, Ford dove to his side, the ball slid behind him, and the game was over.

Zhukov sprinted toward the corner flag and collapsed on the turf. His teammates sprinted after him and fell into a pile of bodes, and the stands erupted once again.

Eagles control play

Barrington looked for much of the game like the better team, especially in the first half. Nellis was seemingly everywhere, fueling his team’s attack, scrapping for turnovers on defense, and drawing penalties from frustrated Skippers. Senior Becket Capizzo was another sparkplug for the offense, orchestrating a series of attacks down the left side that resulted in scoring chances or corner kicks.

For the second game in a row, Birbiglia provided a glorious scoring punch during regulation play. In Barrington’s 1-0 semifinal victory over Moses Brown, Birbiglia netted the game winner. On Sunday against North Kingstown, he put the Eagles up 1-0 with 9:26 remaining in the opening half, after the ball found him outside the box, to the right of the Skippers’ goal.

Showing immense composure, he settled the ball with his right foot, cut left to create space around a defender, and unleashed a left-footed shot from about 24 yards out that lasered into the upper-left corner of the net. Birbiglia sprinted toward the stands, lifted his shirt and showcased what was written on the undershirt beneath. Scrawled in black marker were the words “OC - #12,” in honor of Ollie Cope, a teammate who was injured in the Moses Brown game and unable to play on Sunday.

Other than the lone mistake late in regulation, the Barrington defense was exemplary throughout the game. Cole Ornstedt, Jake Tomlinson, Vissilios Makris and Brooks Mello (at defensive midfield) consistently snuffed attacks, stripped attackers of the ball or defended against long balls into their end. The three senior defenders — Ornstedt, Tomlinson and Makris — along with Helfrich, were named to the Division 1 All-Tournament team. Helfrich was named the MVP.

‘On top of the world’

After the game, Barrington players were drained but elated.

Nellis said, “We talked about it all year – getting to the playoffs and getting to the finals. I’ll admit that we may have gotten a little lucky, with both Hendricken and LaSalle getting knocked out [of the playoffs], but at the end of the day, we finished as the best team in Rhode Island. It wasn’t easy, but we got the job done, and that’s what matters.”

Zhukov said nothing about the final game came easy, “but at the end of the day, we got the victory, and we worked really hard for it. We’re all really happy with the result.” Of the final penalty kick that won the championship, Zhukov said he had a plan before he stepped up for that strike. “In that situation, the pressure’s on him [goalkeeper] to dive and make the save. I knew he was going to dive, and I knew I was going to hit it down the middle the entire time,” he said.

Of the shootout saves, Helfrich said he thought he had a good read on the North Kingstown shooters, but you never know. “You just have to take a guess and fly,” he said. Of the victory he said, “It’s amazing. I feel on top of the world. I love these guys. No one deserves it more than them.”

Barrington entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed, with a regular-season record of 12-3-1. In the playoffs, they won games against Cranston West (5-1) and Moses Brown (1-0) to reach the final game against North Kingstown. Their final record settled at 15-3-1.

The Eagles were a very top-heavy squad, comprised of 11 seniors, including 9 of the typical starting 11. Many of the Class of 2026 have been teammates for a decade, playing together year-round since they were 6 or 7 years old.

Coach Denham, who has been leading the BHS soccer program for 18 years, won his fifth state title, but gave all the credit to the players, especially the seniors. “They’re amazing,” he said. “From the first time we met, back on June 15, the seniors had made a commitment to this program and this season.”

Denham said the senior group organized captains’ practices and ran them consistently. They took part in the team’s summer program and showed up for every summer game. They showed up for 7 a.m. training and conditioning sessions during the summer. “They were phenomenal this entire season. Whatever we asked of them, they did it,” Denham said.

Asked to sum up his emotions after finishing his high school career with a state title, Capizzo said, “This is so many years in the making. All these kids have been playing together since day one, since we were all so young. This is an incredible feeling. When George [Zhukov] put that ball in the net, running to that corner flag, it was a culmination of everything. All the hard work, all the practices, all the nights of playing, everything we put into it — it finally came to fruition. It was great.”