Churchville-Chili led 5-0 at halftime and 6-0 in the first minute of the second half before hanging on for a 7-5 boy’s lacrosse win at Spencerport in the first round of the Section V playoffs.
The win avenged the Saints 17-4 loss to the Rangers in the regular season.
“They beat us earlier this year for the first time in 12 years, so I told our guys to make sure they came out focused and they did,” Saints head coach Donald Benedict said.
Junior Brandon Clark staked the Saints to a 1-0 lead as he netted the rebound at 3:45 of the first period after senior Jacob Buck hit the post with his shot.
Junior Will Zimmerman then scored twice within a 2:41 span. The first came after senior Joe Charnley found him all alone in front with a great pass; the second after he faked the defender left and went back to his right.
Senior Corey Yunker made it 4-0 C-C after taking a pass from Buck with 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Yunker netted the only goal for either team in the second stanza at 9:41 after going one-on-one with a defender for a 5-0 lead.
Churchville-Chili, meanwhile, used great defense by senior long sticks Joe Charnley, Jake Fellows, Ryan Terhaar with juniors Kenny Carr, Clark and Braeden Schmidt to keep the Rangers offense at bay throughout the first half.
The Saints extended the lead to 6-0 as Buck raced out from behind the net and beat the goalie just 50 seconds into the second half.
Spencerport finally got on the board at 1:19 of the third quarter as senior Owen VanWie scored with an assist from classmate Mark Schnauber.
The Saints countered seven minutes later as freshman Patrick Mitchell found Buck, who scored between the legs of the goalie while a man-up to make it 7-1.
But the Rangers would not go quietly as they netted the next four goals. Senior Jonathan Agness and sophomore Todd Smith each scored 40 seconds apart near the end of the third quarter to trail 7-3.
In the fourth, Jack Lehtonen took a pass from Zach Edwards and found the net at 4:51 of the fourth and, just 49 seconds later, Smith tallied from Agness to close the deficit to just two goals at 7-5.
But Saints seniors Buck and Yunker played keep-a-way and held the ball over the final minute to secure the win and advance them to the quarterfinals against defending state champion Victor.
