One year after the top-ranked Spencerport Rangers girls’ soccer team was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, they won their fourth overall Section V championship and first since the surprising 2007 title with a 2-0 win over seventh-seed Aquinas.
After a scoreless first half the Rangers broke the scoreless duel on an unassisted goal by junior co-captain Luca Fahmer in the 43rd minute – her seventh of the season.
They got an insurance goal from junior Aleah Martone with an assist by sophomore Venessa Watson with three minutes remaining in regulation. It marked Martone’s fourth goal of the season and Watson’s fifth assist
Sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Opladen was credited with six saves as the Rangers registered their 14th shutout of the season and sixth consecutive dating back to late in the first half on October 7 against Webster Schroeder. She enters the state playoffs first in Section V among goalkeepers who have played at least 1,000 minutes having allowed only four goals all season – a goals per game average of .214.
The win – their 19th of the season – shattered the school mark of 16 wins set during the 1980 season when they won their second sectional title. The other two titles came the first year girls’ soccer was offered – 1973 – along with 2007.
Spencerport, who moved up from fourth among New York State Class A schools to second behind only Jamesville-DeWitt in the NYS Sportswriters weekly poll, advances to the New York State playoffs and the Far West Regionals against Section VI champ Grand Island at SUNY Geneseo.
