Rangers win Hilton Tourney
After hanging on for a 2-1 victory over Greece Olympia in the semi-finals, the Spencerport Rangers boy's soccer team defeated Churchville-Chili 3-2 in the championship game to capture the season-opening Hilton Tournament.
In the first round, the Rangers took a 1-0 lead early in the first half when midfielder Chris Farnsworth changed direction and fed Mike Placito in the right corner whose centering pass was knocked in by Nick Droegmoeller.
After Olympia came back to tie the game 1-1, the Rangers missed on a penalty kick, but regained the lead with just minutes left in the first half. Jason Bloom headed the ball up the middle to Placito who scored.
The Rangers defense then took over in the second half. Goalkeeper Drew Hopkins made a diving save with six minutes left in the game, the defense fended off a 30-yard direct kick with four minutes left, a corner kick with three minutes left and had a header attempt to just go over the crossbar with less than one minute in the game to preserve the win and send Spencerport into the final.
In the championship game, Domenic Colaprete scored his second goal of the game with less than two minutes remaining, breaking a 2-2 tie and giving Spencerport a 3-2 win and the title.
"I'm happy we were able to hang on for a win," said Ranger head coach Tom Etsler after the first game. "Our lack of conditioning showed, but it's still early in the season."
The Rangers improved to 3-0 on the year with a 1-0 win over Gates Chili on Tom Graham's goal.