By TIM IRVING
Pittsford Mendon junior Elena Barr listens to her soccer coach.
When you have open space, shoot the ball.
Barr took a pass from Rachel Lee on the right side of the box and hit it off the inside of the bottom of the cross bar and bounced off the back of Brockport keeper Emma Sodoma and into the net with 15:45 left as the Vikings defeated the Blue Devils 1-0.
“Rachel played a great ball because she always looks up, I had lots of space in front of me,” Barr said. “I was a little disappointed it barely hit the cross bar though.”
A battle of missed opportunities for the first half. Barr had the first chance on a through ball from Lauren DiMarzo but Emma Sodoma came off her line and beat her to the ball.
Later in the first half, Paige Taylor took a pass from Maija Young and got a clean look at goal but Leah Shaffer made a diving save.
“She has great hands, she reads the game well, she dives well, she’s the complete package in terms of goalkeeping,” head coach Eric Pritchard said of his junior keeper.
Eight minutes into the second half, Bridget Merkel let a shot fly and Sodoma made the save. With both keepers playing that well, it looked like a scoreless draw was coming.
Barr said, “Brockport is an amazing team, they spread out, they were heading straight to goal, they’re so aggressive but they were all pushed to the left side and we switched the ball.”
The Blue Devils (5-1-1) pressed forward late but couldn’t beat Shaffer and her defense.
The win is a big one for the Vikings (5-2), who have a game against another unbeaten team on Saturday when they travel to Honeoye Falls-Lima.
“We’ve got a couple of injuries so, to play through a couple of injuries and getting a win against this team, whose very good, I was very happy with how they played today,” Pritchard said.
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