By PAUL GOTHAM
CHURCHVILLE, N.Y. — John Mahoney’s Churchville-Chili XI opened the boys’ soccer season with one win and three losses. After downing Hilton 1-0 in their opener, the Saints fell in succession to Wayne, Webster Thomas and Spencerport.
The latter three of those squads appeared in Monday’s New York State rankings.
Tuesday night, Churchville-Chili avenged one of those setbacks and looked like a team that has its best soccer in front of them.
Senior Nick Millard scored his first goal of the season, and the Saints (6-3-0) won their fifth straight with a 1-nil victory over Webster Thomas.
“We’ve lost three games and all three were to one-loss teams,” Mahoney said. “This win was not like a revelation to any of us. We just haven’t hit our stride yet. The last two games we’ve hit our stride a little bit more especially in the second halves.”
Millard took an Alex Blondale through-ball in the 61st minute and connected from just inside the 18-yard box.
“Saw “Blondy” play the ball,” Millard explained. “I cut it in, but I knew he (the defender) would shut me down inside and I cut it back it outside. Hit it with the left foot. Got lucky. It dropped down a little bit and it bounced in.”
Millard’s goal came after a series of chances for the home side.
Jacob Anthony took advantage of a misplay in the backline for a scoring opportunity less than three minutes into the second half. Thomas keeper Bailey Rogers made a sprawling save on the play. Ten minutes later, Gaven Egan sprung Mario Cozzo on a through-ball, but Rogers was there for the stop. Five minutes after that, the Saints pushed forward for a corner. Again they came away empty-handed.
The Saints, though, had found their rhythm after playing a choppy first half.
“We just talked at halftime about everything we did was predictable in the first half,” Mahoney explained. “We were hitting long balls over and over and over again. We were just going straight down the field. We didn’t possess at all.
“We were the better team in the second half. We took it to them and played really good soccer. I don’t think they had much in a way of chances. In the first half, I thought they were the better team.”
Blondale eluded a pair of defenders in the center of the pitch and attacked the middle third on the game winner.
“That was the ugliest through ball, a toe-poke through ball,” Mahoney joked. “But that was all he could get on it. He saw it, and he poked it through the defense. I think because it was with his toe it came out sidewinding and it just bounced a little weird. Nick is player who uses both feet equally well. It was a great goal for him.”
The helper was the junior’s second of the year.
“I just had to get a foot on it and see how far I could get it,” Blondale said. “Saw an opening. I got past a few and then I saw Nick wide open. I just threaded the needle the best I could.”
Thomas beat Churchville, 1-0 on September 5th. Two days later, the Saints suffered their worst loss of the season.
“After the Spencerport game losing 5-0 it made us motivated to where we’re not going to have that happen again,” Millard commented. “We’re going to keep winning. We’re five games strong.”
Alex Main made five saves for the clean sheet – Churchville’s fifth of the season.
Having scored 77 goals last year, the Saints have now won three games this season by 1-nil counts and are on pace to finish with just under 23 markers.
“Last year we were putting five, six goals on the board,” Mahoney said. “We’re winning a lot of games 1-0, 2-0 now. That’s our team this year.”
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