Churchville-Chili won their first boys soccer Section V championship since 1990 last season and, despite losing several key players from that roster, embarked on the 2024 playoffs as the top seed in Class AA.
After an 11-3-1 regular season, what hasn’t changed from one year ago is that they are having success emphasizing defense, having allowed only eight goals total through the first round of the playoffs. They have a full complement of juniors in goal and on the back line in Isaac Bailey, Braeden Naujokas, Kyler Thomas, and center-back Ryan Vujanovic in front of top-five goalkeeper (.49 goals against average) Mason Simmons.
“For our team, we’re focused on defense a lot and it’s really important to us that we work on shutouts, work on defending, and go forward from there,” Simmons said.
“We’ve really come together…we had this past week off to really bond and worked on our chemistry and feeling better coming into this sectional round,” said junior midfielder Christopher Keller.
The Saints have outscored their opponents 32-8 through the sectional quarterfinals and were ranked 14th in New York State in Class AA by New York State Sportswriters as of October 29.
And they are getting their offense from multiple sources, preventing opposing defenses from keying on just one or two players. You have to scroll down to page four among scoring leaders in Section V to find the first Saint. Indicative of that was their 2-0 victory over Webster-Schroeder in the first round.
Sophomore Lucas Cariola scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season from sophomore Bryce Wolf (fourth assist), while Isaac Bailey headed in a corner kick for his second goal from senior Noah Berg (third assist).
Just ahead of Cariola’s 15 points is Keller with 16 with senior Colin Guilfoyle in the top three with 15 points. Wolf has added eight points and Naujokas has chipped in four assists.
“It’s just a mix this year,” Keller said. “We don’t have a star player, which is good and bad. We all have to rely on each other, and we’ve got each other’s back, and we know that together we can find a way.”
“We graduated some good talent…but we returned about 15 guys who played significant minutes and probably of those 15, most of them started a game last year,” head coach John Mahoney said.
“Mason is an outstanding goalie (and) I knew what he was coming in. He’s got ten shutouts on the year – one away from the school record – and one away from the career record (19).
“I always wonder where the goals are going to come from…but the team we have is filled with workers. I knew we’re smart, but guys have stepped up.”
The Saints reached the playoff championship games several times over the years only to fall one game short of earning a brick. That ended last year with the long-awaited title and they have carried that momentum through this season.
“Absolutely; those games were difficult that we went in to and that’s taught all the returners coming back and set the standard for all the young guys coming up that this is our level, and this is what we want to accomplish,” Keller said.
