Despite ten glorious scoring chances over the first 40 minutes and at least three more in the second half, Churchville-Chili and Irondequoit played over 90 minutes of scoreless soccer. Until junior Leah Marron surprised the defender by going left instead of toward the end-line and found senior Breanna Giacolone at the far side of the net for the redirect goal and a 1-0 win in girls soccer.
“I was thinking cross; I’m normally an outside back, so (playing up front) is new for me,” Marron said.
“I really wanted to beat that team because we seem to always go into overtime against them,” Giacolone said. “Once she crossed it, I said we really need this.”
The Saints dominated possession and had more than their share of chances to find the net in the first half. The most frustrating was a sequence in the 10th minute where senior Jade Distant, Marron and junior Hannah Shipley all had their attempts stopped on three diving saves by the Irondequoit keeper.
Eagles keeper Lean Memmott made two more diving stops in the 23rd and 24th minutes to stop Shipley after a great feed from Distant and Shipley again following a pass from Giacolone.
Irondequoit threatened with about 12 minutes remaining in regulation as they hit the crossbar.
“We were hoping in the second half to keep our intensity and put it in the back of the net,” Saints head coach Mimi Rague said. “It didn’t happen, but we didn’t get frustrated.”
The Saints improved their record to 3-2 overall and 3-1 in league play. They earlier had wins over Webster-Thomas and Canandaigua.
