The East Rochester Bombers and Byron-Bergen/Elba Bees met for the second year in a row in the Class C1 championship after the Bees pulled out a 1-0 victory in last year’s match. It was sweet revenge for the Bombers as junior Perry Francis netted two of the three goals in a second half comeback to lead East Rochester to its first title since 2020 and second in five years with a 3-2 victory, Saturday at Honeoye Falls-Lima.
“I think everyone played well,” East Rochester head coach Mike Yacuzzo said. “We had a Williamson game earlier in the season where they came out and scored early, and it was back and forth, and we ended up winning that one in overtime. I think that game is what really prepared us for this. We knew that if we went down one goal, that we had the capability to come back and put some in the back of the net. So, it was just stay composed, play our game, keep shooting, and it ended up working out for us.”
Down 1-0 in the second half, the Bombers needed a score. With 15 minutes remaining in game time, Francis got control of the ball and set himself up in scoring position where he sent a missile into the bottom right corner of the goal to tie the game at 1-1 apiece. Then, just about 10 minutes later with 6:24 remaining in regulation, Francis struck again, this time with a shot just over the out-stretched arms of Byron-Bergen’s senior goalkeeper Martin MacConnell to take a 2-1 lead.
“Our coach is always telling us to keep our game sharp, keep the aggressiveness, and keep hustling,” Francis said. “That’s what we all tried to do. So, things like the mental block, we had to deal with just being down 1-0 with the time slowly going down and that made it really hard to keep our composure. But I think we did really well because we were able to come back.”
In the first half, neither team was able to gain possession. It was back and forth throughout the opening 40 as each team had a few chances to score, but the physical defense from both sides prevented that. It was a fight for possession every time the ball hit the turf, and no team was able to get anything going offensively from it. Halftime was a chance for a reset for both sides in a high intensity game.
“Halftime adjustments were basically reinforcing, it’s a high-pressure game, we know it’s the finals,” Yacuzzo said. “We need to slow down a little bit, find feet and pass to each other. We can’t just turn the ball over and like I said, just keeping composure. We knew that we could get some on the back of the net and they did that. They kept their composure, they started finding feet, taking some chances, and they ended up in the back of the net.”
Out of halftime, it was the Bees who struck first. The physicality picked up in the second half and after a push in the back penalty was called on the Bombers, it allowed junior Colin Rea to set up for the penalty kick. It was one-on-one with East Rochester’s senior goalkeeper Alexander Entz and Rea converted the kick as he sent it into the bottom left corner. That goal was only the fifth goal allowed all season by this Bombers defense.
“East Rochester had really good defense,” Rea said. “I didn’t have many opportunities, but I tried to capitalize. I’ve been working on penalty kicks all year, so I was ready for the moment.”
Despite going down 1-0, the confidence and composure of the Bombers never wavered. Along with Francis and the offense scoring goals to take the lead, the defense held strong as well. Byron-Bergen only got a couple shots on goal the rest of the way that were all saved by Entz.
“I just can’t get into my own head,” Entz said. “When I was a freshman, at this moment, that goal would have crushed me. But now that I’ve matured as a player and as a person, it means everything to me that I can be able to get past that.”
After taking a 2-1 lead, the game was still up for grabs with five minutes remaining. That was until the leading goal scorer on the Bombers, senior Liam Kinney netted his 26th goal this season with 1:08 left to put the game away.
The Bees got one more goal before the final whistle. It was Rea again as he sent a shot into the back of the net to cut the lead to one with 11 seconds left and finish with a final score of 3-2. As the season comes, the Bees finished with a final record of 14-4-1, Jack Farner led the team with 26 goals on the year, and Rea finished with 15 goals on the year after his two-goal effort.
“We played with a lot of heart,” Byron-Bergen head coach Ken Rogoyski said. “I’m very proud of all of them, they gave it their all. They never gave up until the last second.”
With the win, East Rochester advances to the Class C regional qualifier to take on the champions of Class C2, Kendall. It was a pivotal game today for this Bombers team as they can use it not only as momentum, but a learning experience heading into the next match.
“Well, it really goes to show that even if you don’t get a call you want, or you go down in a game, it’s not over until the scoreboard hits zero,” senior Elijah Tanner said. “We just had to stay strong until the very end and I think that makes us better overall. Being able to face that adversity.”
East Rochester won its 18th straight and have not lost since the season opener back on Sept. 3rd against Livonia. The Bombers look ahead to this Wednesday, Nov. 6th as they take on the champions of Class C2, No. 1 Kendall Eagles (17-1-1). Location and time are still to be determined.
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