By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jenna Northup connected in the 53rd minute, and the No. 4 Churchville-Chili Saints clinched a spot in the 2022 Section V Class A Girls’ championship with a 1-nil victory over No. 1 Pittsford Mendon.
Churchville will face No. 2 Spencerport in Saturday’s final. The Saints will be looking to win their fourth title in program history and first since 2004.
Northup’s goal, the senior’s eighth of the season, came moments after she was denied on a chance from just outside the 18-yard box.
Taylor Curyto set up the game winner when she found Northup along the right flank. Northup finished in the opposite side netting.
“We create a lot of opportunities,” Saints’ head coach Brooke Elnicky said. “Sometimes, it does take us a while to cash in on them. But you know what, this team does a nice job of persevering. They’ll keep working, and they’ll keep creating. They have teammates that are able to get it in when it counts.”
53’ Jenna Northrup connects to give @CCCSDgsoccer a 1-nil lead. pic.twitter.com/zpo09CiVQp
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 27, 2022
Churchville handed Mendon (ranked fifth NYSSWA Class A) its first loss of the season. The Vikings entered play averaging better than three goals per contest over their previous seven games in the month of October.
Emily McCane made 11 saves on the night, but C-C limited Mendon to a handful of good scoring opportunities.
“We definitely prepared ourselves today to face them by watching some of their games from the season,” Elnicky noted. “It seemed like the games that they were most successful in was when (opposing) teams were having a hard time shrinking the field defensively. That was one of our focuses, was the communication and making sure we were pinching in.”
Churchville’s defense was aggressive stepping to the ball throughout the contest and kept Mendon from sustained buildup.
“That’s something we’ve been working on all season,” Elnicky said of stepping to the ball defensively. “It’s a bit of mindset because it’s something we’ve been working on all season. This is a group of kids that will practice for a few days and the next game what we’ve been focusing on, they’re a group that goes out there and they implement it in a game.”
Mendon keeper Leah Shaffer had allowed two goals in the Vikings previous six games. The senior had posted nine shutouts on the season and a save percentage over 90 percent. She looked destined for another clean sheet on Wednesday until Northup broke free along the right wing.
“A little bit of disbelief,” Elnicky said of her first reaction to the goal. “Because it hasn’t happened very often this season (against Shaffer).
“I know we were creating quite a few opportunities. With this group of players, it’s just kinda biding our time until we get that perfect one and being able to get it in.”
Churchville will gets its second straight state-ranked opponent when it takes the pitch against Spencerport (No. 8 NYSSWA Class A) on Saturday.
The teams split a pair of regular season meetings with C-C winning 3-2 on September 8th. Spencerport avenged that loss with 2-1 win on September 26th.
Spencerport (15-1-2) has won six straight sectional titles. The Rangers advanced to the NYS Class A semifinals a year ago.
Churchville (12-5-1) won three straight titles from 2002-2004.
Time and location of Saturday’s game is TBD.
Her last name is Northup. Nice article!
Thank you so much! 😊😊
Thank YOU for pointing that out to me. I was going along like I had Jenna’s name spelled correctly.