By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An adjustment in the midfield paid immediate dividends, and Dan Rooney led the McQuaid Jesuit Knights over rival Brighton.
Rooney netted a hat trick in McQuaid’s 3-0 victory over the Barons in non-league action Saturday night.
The senior attacker put McQuaid on the board in the 15th minute when he received a pass from Adriano Margiotta just past the midfield stripe and beat the Barons’ defense for his 13th goal of the season.
“His speed’s tough to match,” McQuaid coach Nino Pilato said. “He’s the leader of the team and likes to throw the team on his back.”
Rooney doubled the lead in the 42nd minute. Justin LaFountain won a ball in the midfield and gave his teammate a lead into the open field.
“We’ve been working on diagonal runs in practice,” Pilato noted. “It paid off there.”
Junior Tommy Gallina made four saves in goal for the shutout, McQuaid’s eighth clean sheet of the season.
Pilato pointed to the play of LaFountain and Margiotta in the midfield as a reason for the dominating defensive effort.
“We made a little adjustment in the midfield: same two guys playing the same area,” Pilato explained. “We shifted them (LaFountain and Margiotta) around a little bit which helped keep control of the middle a little bit.
“They’ve been playing kind of flat in the middle, so now we staggered them which made a little bit of a difference in controlling the center of the field.”
Rooney capped the scoring with a blast from inside the 18-yard box in the 74th minute. Dan Malloy picked up the assist on the play.
Rooney has 15 goals on the season.
Margiotta’s assist was his 10th of the year.
Malloy has five goals to go with six assists.
LaFountain has four assists.
McQuaid took 14 shots and collected seven corner kicks.
Brighton took just one corner kick.
Brighton keeper Lucas Demedeiros made 10 saves including a point blank attempt from Malloy late in the first half.
McQuaid improved to 9-2 (3-1 RCAC) with the win. The Knights play at Bishop Kearney next Saturday. A 7 p.m. kickoff is scheduled.
Brighton fell to 2-6-1 (1-4-1 Monroe County). The Barons visit Greece Athena on Wednesday. A 4:30 p.m. start time is slated.
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