Junior Lukas Fernandes scored the only goal of the game on a direct kick to lift Churchville-Chili to its 11th victory of the season 1-0 over host Spencerport.
A short time after his bullet shot from 25 yards out was tipped over the crossbar by Spencerport goalkeeper Andrew Gionta, the Saints were awarded a direct kick from 22 yards out directly above the box.
Fernandes didn’t allow the wall to set up and found the net for his seventh goal of the season in the 12th minute.
“It’s not the first time we’ve scored like that,” Fernandes said. “We scored against Webster that way as well. As soon as the whistle blows, you keep your head up and be ready to go.”
Late in the first half, C-C junior Chris Millard sent a long feed to break Fernandes in all alone, but he was stopped on a point-blank attempt.
Spencerport, playing their final regular season home game and honoring eight seniors prior to the start, put more offensive pressure on in the second half and had their three best scoring opportunities.
David DeBellis dribbled around a defender and fed Dan Reger with a pass, but he ripped his shot high in the 48th minute.
DeBellis took a direct kick from 30 yards out, but was stopped by Saints goalkeeper Kyle McCane ten minutes later.
And a three-way passing play between Reger, DeBellis and Chris Young saw the shot go wide with just seven minutes remaining.
The 1-0 final marked the Saints sixth shutout this season.
“We did not play well at all,” Churchville-Chili head coach John Mahoney said of his Saints, who entered ranked 20th in Class A in the latest New York State Sportswriters poll. “We didn’t possess the ball or win the 50-50 battles.
“The good news is that, if you can play that poorly and still win, you’re pretty lucky. We’re a highly technical team, but we didn’t show it tonight.”
The Saints entered their final game of the regular season against Brockport in a three-way battle with the Blue Devils and Greece Athena for the Monroe 3 division crown. Sectional play begins this coming week.
Seniors honored prior to the contest for the Rangers were Kevin McMaster, Cameron Hill, Young, Nate Simpson, Connor Wolk, Jake Burris, Gionta and Lucas Basil.
