By PAUL GOTHAM
BRIGHTON, N.Y. — John Mahoney understands the identity of his squad.
Seven games into the 2020 season, Mahoney’s Churchville-Chili boys’ soccer team had found the back of the net on just seven occasions.
The Saints, though, have made the most of their limited offense.
Alex Blondale converted on a second-half corner kick opportunity and Churchville went on to defeat Brighton, 1-0 in Monroe County Division II action Saturday.
“I saw it floating in the box, and I just had to get my foot on it,” Blondale said.
The play started from the left corner where Gaven Egan delivered a cross with an in-swing that landed just inside the six-yard box. Caleb Bailey had the first chance to score. The ball then bounded to teammate Nick Rippe before Blondale connected for his second goal of the season.
“It was bouncing around the box and someone finally just smacked it in,” Mahoney said. “That goal was scored on something we’ve been focusing on a lot which is just like those half-chance, kinda dirty, gritty goals.”
With the win, C-C improved to 5-2-1 and remained undefeated in their past six games. They dropped their first two outings of the season allowing a combined four goals. Since then, the Saints have surrendered just one tally.
“We don’t give up a lot,” Mahoney stated. “That’s something that has been our focus because we don’t score. We’re focusing on what we’re good at. And what we’re good at is not only not allowing goals, but we don’t give up a ton of shots. We really don’t give up a ton of chances. That’s how we shut teams out.”
49’ Alex Blondale converts on the fourth corner opportunity of the afternoon to give @CCCSDbsoccer a 1-0 lead over @BCSDSports pic.twitter.com/DNYNNSx2kR
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 31, 2020
The win was Churchville’s second this year over Brighton. The two schools met in the 2018 Section V Class A championship. That year’s version of the Saints included four players with double-digit tallies. Churchville amassed 77 goals in 20 games that year. Bailey leads the current version with four goals, and only four different Saints have scored this season.
“We’re not a pretty goal-scoring team,” Mahoney stated. “We don’t have a true goal scorer on our roster and because of that we need to get the gritty goals, and that was a great example of a gritty goal.”
Churchville’s win accompanied by Spencerport’s 7-0 drubbing of first-place Webster Thomas created a log jam atop the division with all three teams posting 5-2-1 records in the league heading into the final week of the regular season.
Churchville hosts Spencerport on Wednesday. With the impact of COVID-19 hanging over the post-season, the importance of this week’s meeting is not lost on Mahoney.
“That’s a first-place game for us now. Between us and Spencerport, whoever wins that game with one game to go at worst could tie the division with Thomas then. That’s a huge game all of a sudden for us.
“All it takes is another couple (COVID-19) cases, a bad breakout in this world we’re living in and next thing you know the regular season could be all we’re playing for.”
Jaden Tensley made two saves for the shutout. Tensley and Holden Hewlett split time at keeper for the Saints.
“He’s got sure hands,” Mahoney said of Tensley. “He’s a confident goalie. We’ve got two goalies that we alternate because they’re both good. One is a big, strong mountain boy and jumps. Jaden is much more reserved. He’s in command. He talks to his team which is a big point of growth this year for him. He talks a lot more.”
When Brighton and Churchville met in the 2018 final, the Barons were then part of Monroe County Division III and made the move to Division II for this season.
“All they did by coming in is up our division standards,” Mahoney said of his opponent. “It was a nice addition to the division. Playing them is a lot like in the old days playing Brockport or Spencerport now. They’re really good rivalry games for us.”
Brighton fell to 3-3-2 with Saturday’s loss.
“We can’t give up soft goals like that,” Brighton head coach Adam Hiller said. “It wasn’t pretty. That’s high school. I told our guys before the game ‘our offense isn’t good enough to give up soft goals.’”
Brighton hosts Irondequoit on Wednesday.
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