by Warren Kozireski
Churchville-Chili, Kendall, Brockport, and Byron-Bergen are state-ranked and, as of October 7, the Saints, Blue Devils, Spencerport, and Hilton took up the first four spots in the Section V Class AA standings as area boys soccer teams continue to do well this year.
Kendall, 14-0-0, was ranked fourth in the New York State Sportswriters rankings in Class C2. The Eagles have outscored their opponents 56-4 as senior Pablo Rosario-Reyes stood third in all of Section V with 54 points on 17 goals and 20 assists. Classmate Brandon Barrett was tied for 20th with 34 points, senior Jonathan Esposito had 30 points, and junior Brenden Eichas added seven goals with 10 assists. Goalkeeper Jonathan Conte stood fourth in Section V with a .31 goals against average.
Churchville-Chili was ranked seventh in the state in Class AA as of October 4 with a 9-0-1 record and added two more wins this past week to stand at 11-0-1 and clinch the division title. Through 12 games, they were outscoring their opponents 43-3.
The Saints use team speed up front and on the backline and are getting offensive contributions from multiple sources, led by junior Lucas Cariola with 11 goals and eight assists—the first Saint to break the ten-goal barrier since 2018. Senior midfielder Chris Keller had eight goals (including the double-overtime game-winner against Spencerport last week) and seven assists, senior Braeden Naujokas had eight goals with four assists, and junior Bryce Wolf added 17 points.
“We have scored 43 goals and given up three, but most games (in Sectionals) aren’t going to be four or five nothing, but we have the quality to finish this year, and I think that’s the big difference,” Saints head coach John Maloney said.
“We start nine seniors and seven of them were in the Section final two years ago, so they seem pretty calm and don’t seem fazed.”
Senior goalkeeper Mason Simmons broke the program’s career record for shutouts (previously 19) with 28 and counting. He also holds the record for shutouts in a season with 11 last season, though he already has nine this year, so that could change.
As of this writing, he stood third in all of Section V in goals against at .24 per game.
“I think we knew since last year; we had a lot of juniors on that team, so a lot of returning seniors, and we knew we had a lot of talent on the team,” Simmons said. “We’ve been really good defensively, and offensively, we’ve been able to find the net on a lot of teams. A lot of credit to our defense.”
Seniors Trevor Caldwell, Ryan Vujanovic, Isaac Bailey, and Kyler Thomas make up the back four for the Saints most minutes.
Division foe Brockport was in second place at 9-4-0 and ranked 18th among Class AA schools in New York State. They were 5-1 in one-goal games.
Senior Cash Rosado and freshman Andrew Phillips were tied for the team lead with eight goals each, while juniors Ryan Camman, Aiden Fitzpatrick, and Drew Nichols chipped in four, three, and two goals, respectively, with Camman leading the squad with eight assists.
And Byron-Bergen was ranked 18th in Class C in New York State and in second place in Section V behind East Rochester in Class C1 with a 10-3-0 record heading into the final week of the regular season.
Senior Colin Rea led the way offensively with 11 goals and 11 assists, with junior Cody Carlson scoring eight times. Senior Bing Zuber added five goals, with sophomores Mason Farmer and Xavier Vargas each with four tallies, and seniors Jadiel Amaro and Cole DiQuattro combining for six more for the Bees.
The regular season concludes on October 17, with the Section V playoffs commencing on October 21.
