The Spencerport girls’ soccer team played their first official game since winning the program’s first state championship last fall and made it look easy.
In fact, really easy.
Scoring three goals over the first 6:50 of the game and six goals in the first half in what became a 7-0 season opening victory over visiting Wayne Central will tend to get rid of any nerves.
The Rangers boys’ squad opened the doubleheader with a 3-0 shutout.
“Yesterday and before the game we were really nervous,” junior Leah Wengender said. “Being at the top (last year), every team is out to get us.
“Getting three goals early really helped and not being over confident. We all trained hard over the summer and have great team chemistry. We’re all dealing with a lot of nerves before every game.”
Wengender moved up front from midfield this season and opened the scoring at 3:48 after gathering the rebound from her own shot, one-touched around the defender at the end line and put the ball inside the far post.
Just 34 seconds later, senior co-captain and Marist bound Luca Fahmer headed in a perfect cross from Erin Coykendall to make it 2-0 Rangers.
Senior co-captain Aleah Martone created the third goal as she raced down the left wing and sent a cross to Maddie Tortora, who one-touched a pass to Wengender for the goal at 6:50.
Wengender completed her hat trick in the 17th minute when she put a shot in off the Wayne goalkeeper’s hand.
She made it 5-0 after taking a breakout pass from midfield and, despite being pushed from behind by the defender, managed to score in the 26th minute.
Sophomore Gianna Cutaia then scored her first varsity goal knocking in the rebound from her own shot at 38:27 for a 6-0 Rangers advantage.
The only tally of the second half came in the 51st minute as Tortora sent Coykendall in alone with a perfect feed as Spencerport extended their unbeaten streak to 22 games.
“We had good pressure and executed from the get-go,” 14 year head coach Jamie Schneider said.
“We know we have a target on our backs (as defending state champs), but our mindset has been to play with an edge but have fun with it. We know we’re going to get everyone’s best effort against us, we just need to play our game.”
In the boys’ season opener, the Rangers controlled play and threatened twice as first freshman Vincent Ranieri lost the ball in the offensive zone, fought to get it back but sailed his shot just over the crossbar in the 19th minute.
But Ranieri netted his first varsity goal at 27:30 as junior Ivan Valdozka crossed the ball from the left wing to him in the middle before he found the right corner of the net to stake the Rangers to a 1-0 lead.
In the first minutes of the second half, Spencerport pushed the lead to 2-0 when junior Justin Hockenberger sent Valdozka in with a lead pass. Valdozka dribbled around a defender and scored at 42:38.
The third and final goal came on a direct kick by junior Ajan Rajamohan from 25 yards out after senior co-captain Cam Barnard was taken down just above the box at 68:15.
Rajamohan captained the Rochester Futbol Club under-16 boys’ team this past summer that won the “super” or “elite” age group tournament at the National Cup XVI Finals run by U.S. Club Soccer in Westfield, Indiana.
Senior goalkeeper Luke Dobles preserved the shutout when he came flying out to kick away a Wayne Central opportunity in the 66th minute. He and classmate Gabe Panzera, who played the final five minutes, combined for the shutout.
“You never know what you have with just practices and scrimmages and we should have finished more, but we played a solid first game,” Spencerport head coach Tom Estler said.
