23 in ’23; Spencerport’s season is one for the record books

By PAUL GOTHAM

Kendall Mesh remembers watching the Spencerport girls’ soccer team win its third straight sectional title. She was in middle school at the time and made the trip to Canandaigua with her youth travel team to watch the elder sisters of the Rangers’ program.

That Spencerport squad was in the midst of setting what would be a state record with a 64-game unbeaten streak.

Cate Burns recalls watching the 2017 state championship game and making a promise to her mother.

In November, Burns and Mesh capped their high school careers with a third state title in program history. Along the way, the four-year varsity starters led Spencerport to a Section V record eighth-straight championship.

When the duo and their teammates walked off the field of Tompkins-Cortland Community College after a 2-0 victory over Smithtown West in the NYSPHSAA Class AA championship, they left behind a perfect record of 23 wins with neither a loss nor a tie.

“It’s not every day that you get to be part of such a wonderful program,” Mesh said. “I knew this team was something special from the beginning of August. I knew we were capable of reaching things that others didn’t expect. I had a lot of faith from the beginning. In all seriousness, I couldn’t have written a more perfect ending for us.”

They accomplished what other Spencerport teams had in the past, but this group of Rangers may have set themselves apart from previous champions.

Head coach Jamie Schneider’s comment after the Section V Class AA championship game gave long-time fans reason to pause: “They are the best defense we’ve had.”

The best? Better than the two previous state champions?

The numbers proved Schneider right. The ’23 Rangers set a program record for goals allowed (3). They also scored a Spencerport girls’ soccer record 102 goals.

The 23 wins represents a single-season best for the program and while other Spencerport teams have gone unbeaten, none have been able to go unbeaten and untied.

With Mesh playing center back in front of her, Burns etched her name in the New York State record book with 20 shutouts this season.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the years, so it’s hard to make a good thing even better than it is,” Burns said. “I think we’ve done that in a way. We brought the state championship back.”

This championship also came by a different means.

In 2016, Spencerport girls soccer was a school looking for its first state title in program history. They hadn’t won a sectional title in nine years.

In 2023, the Rangers are one of the premier programs in the state. Opposing teams circled games with Spencerport on their schedules.

“It’s a pretty well-known fact that Spencerport Soccer obviously is a great program to be a part of,” Burns said. “It’s been very successful in the past. Being able to improve it is a huge accomplishment.”

Burns and Mesh moved into the starting lineup of a program that was going to take every opponent’s best shot.

In the previous four years (2016-2019), the Rangers had compiled a record of 74-5-8 with two state titles, four regional championships, four sectional crowns and a state-record 64-game unbeaten streak.

The cliché of the only way to go is down might have been a logical comment at the time.

Spencerport has done anything but that and even found a margin for improvement.

Over the recent four years (2020-2023), the Rangers have matched the wins of their predecessors but done it in fewer games going 74-1-5.

Yes, one loss in four years.

“For me, I’ll go back years later and I’ll look at the record and I will be ‘Wow, we did that,'” Mesh said. “We surprised so many people. It’s not every day you see a team do that. It just shows how much it meant to our team and how much it meant to each individual.”

A dropoff was expected after the 2021 season when Lily Brongo (currently at the University of Wyoming), Bre DeHond (Monroe Community College) and Alyssa Hackett (St. Peter’s) graduated. With that trio went 52 of Spencerport’s 80 goals on the season. Replacing the offensive production would prove too much for most programs.

The 2022 version responded with 65 goals in advancing to the state semifinals.

This year, though, it was not only a matter of what Spencerport did, but how they did it.

They compiled those numbers with a schedule that included 10 games against state-ranked teams.

“Their speed got to us,” said Webster Schroeder head coach Kent Brown after his Warriors lost Spencerport, 3-0 in the AA final. “Every time we thought we had a chance to counter and find some type of seam or get in, their speed on the backline took it away. I thought that was the big difference in the game just how much quicker they got into spaces.”

Schroeder, a NYS regional finalist a year ago, finished this season 17-3-0 and ranked No. 11 in the state. All three of the Warriors’ losses were to Spencerport. Brown’s side scored 51 goals in its 17 wins. Against the Rangers, Schroeder did not find the back of the net in 240 minutes of game action.

“They play a difficult style of soccer to defend against,” Brown said.

In the state semifinal game, Spencerport knocked off previously undefeated Somers (a team that had been ranked No. 1 in the state earlier in the season), 2-1.

The next day the Rangers showed no letdown as they ran the table.

In doing so, Burns fulfilled her vow.

“I want to win a state championship,” she told her mom after that game in 2017. “It’s a crazy thing that it worked out this way. I remember telling her that I think my senior year we could possibly win it because I had played with these girls for so long. I felt so confident in them.”

Spencerport’s 2023 season produced the program’s fifth All-America selection with Mesh joining former Rangers Brittany Kinmond (2009), Leah Wengender (2018), Lisa Fisher (’94) and Michelle Sedita (’81). Junior midfielder/forward Lindsay Lenhard also earned All-East Region honors along with Mesh. Burns and classmate Jamie Keens garnered All-State selections.

Schneider received National Coach of the Year honors – a first in program history.

Since its inception in 1983, 14 Section V schools have combined to win 27 state titles.

Spenceport joined Wheatland-Chili, Pittsford Mendon and Arkport with three championships apiece. Aquinas leads the way with five state titles.

Spencerport’s 11 sectional titles tie the Rangers with Kendall and Pittsford Mendon as fifth on the all-time Section V list behind Livonia (19), Aquinas (15), Arkport (13) and Red Creek (12).

In seven postseason games this year, the Rangers outscored opponents by a combined total of 31-1.

A year ago, their season ended with PKs in the state semis. This season, Burns, Mesh and their fellow classmates leave behind a 40-game unbeaten streak.

“Obviously, no one wants their season to end in PKs,” Mesh said. “It’s a horrible feeling especially when you know you had so much talent and so much potential. Being able to finally grab it this year, for us it meant so much more. We wanted it so bad. To finally come out with it, is just incredible.

“Words can’t even describe the feeling. It truly feels like a fever dream. Everyone described it as this fairy tale ending. That is really the only way you can describe it.”

***Article was updated to include complete list of All-America selections in program history.