By PAUL GOTHAM
SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — In a game pitting the state’s two top-ranked teams, the McQuaid Jesuit Knights continued their undefeated season with a 1-0 victory over the Clarence Red Devils (VI) in the NYSPHSAA Class AA Far West Regional at Spencerport Central Schools.
With neither team willing to surrender momentum, McQuaid (No. 1 NYSSWA) scored early for the second time in as many contests and held off Clarence (No. 2 NYSSWA).
“It was a choppy game,” second-year McQuaid coach Nino Pilato said. “That’s the best team we’ve faced all year. They knock the ball around well. They possess the ball. They won a lot of 50/50 balls.”
Dan Malloy connected on his third post-season goal, but McQuaid struggled to find its rhythm offensively through the first 40 minutes.
“It started with 50/50s,” senior midfielder Nick Pierleoni said. “First half we got killed on the 50/50s. So you lose that first challenge then they get the ball. Now we’re defending.”
As a result Knights’ goalkeeper, Tommy Gallina, saw more action Saturday night than he has seen all season.
“Thank God for him because he plays that position so well,” Pilato said.
The senior keeper, averaging less than three saves per game in McQuaid’s previous 19 contests, made nine stops Saturday night. Most of those came in the first half.
“It could have been a lot more shots,” Gallina said “I give credit to my defense. They handled things when they needed to. I just made the saves I needed.”
Gallina’s counterpart, Kenny Suen, proved worthy of the task in the second half. Clarence’s junior keeper made 11 saves on the night including a pair soon after the break.
McQuaid’s Brennan Brown and Dominic Duncan got behind the Clarence defense for a two-on-one break, Suen turned away a Duncan shot. When Adriano Margiotta intercepted the ensuing clearing attempt, Suen rose to the occasion for a diving stop.
The Knights continued the pressure for the remainder of the contest finishing with nine corner kicks for the evening.
“We just won that first ball, and they were defending the whole half,” Pierleoni said of McQuaid’s second-half effort. “It was a great way to play the game out because we didn’t really even have to defend as much. We just had the ball.”
Malloy collected a rebound just outside the 18-yard box and tucked it under the crossbar in the ninth minute for his 13th marker of the season.
“The ball got put in the box, and the goalie punched it out on a 50/50 with Dom,” Malloy explained. “The ball came right to my feet in the air. Just hit it. I do it all the time in practice, just kinda get used to it until you don’t think about it.”
Malloy scored 45 seconds into McQuaid’s 2-1 win over Hilton in Tuesday’s Section V Class AA final.
McQuaid played Saturday without senior back Mike Riedman who was held out of the match for an undisclosed condition.
Clarence (17-3-1) had won 12 straight entering the contest.
McQuaid, which averaged five goals per game during the regular season, has scored four goals in its past three games.
McQuaid moves on to play Ithaca (IV) in next Saturday’s state semi-final.
“We’ve been taking it one game at a time all year,” Pierleoni said. “We’re not trying to get too high, not get too low. It’s definitely a great feeling right now.”
The Knights will look to become the first Section V team since Penfield (2005) to win a NYS Class AA title.
An 8:45 a.m. kickoff is scheduled at Middletown High School.
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