By PAUL GOTHAM
PENFIELD, N.Y. — Nate Heise converted on a late corner kick to rally host Penfield for a 1-1 draw with McQuaid Jesuit in non-league action, Tuesday night.
Heise connected on a volley inside the 18-yard box for his first goal of the season.
“It was a little jumbled up,” Penfield head coach John Cotsonas said of the sequence. “We feel with our height and our athletic ability, we are really dangerous in those restart situations.”
Mason Vallow started the play with a service from the left corner flag. Teammate Caden Shager won a ball in the air that he redirected to Heise who went inside post with a one-timer.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM DENNIS JOYCE.
Coming in the 76th minute, the corner kick was Penfield’s first of the night.
“We say to the guys if you can’t get the ball across, you try to get a corner. That way we put ourselves in a situation to get a chance on goal,” Cotsonas said.
Penfield had its opportunities early in the match. The best of which came when Dallas Crawford made a run along the left wing and drew a service across the box Connor Walsh on the opposite side. Walsh one-timed a shot just over the bar.
76’ Nate Heise converts on a corner kick to level the match. Heading to overtime: @AthleticsMcQ 1 @PHSVarBSoccer 1 pic.twitter.com/2UfJYAbVJA
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 24, 2025
“We knew they would be good,” McQuaid head coach Jeff Oliver said of the Patriots. “They were very good, very organized. They played a little bit different than some of the other teams we’ve seen. We had to try and weather that a little bit because they had a good run of it in the first half. Well-coached team over there. The result is fair.”
The Patriots (4-3-1) entered play having dropped a 2-1 decision to reigning NYSPHSAA Class AAA champion Fairport and a 1-nil setback to Hilton two games prior to that.
“We’ve been bouncing up and down a little bit with the Fairport match and the Hilton matches,” Cotsonas said. “We felt like if we could play well tonight that could push us in the right direction and get us going.
“We knew it was going to be a good matchup. We’ve seen them a couple times. We have 16 seniors on our team. They want challenges, and this was a good one.”
Kiernan McManus gave McQuaid (5-2-1) a 1-nil lead 12 minutes into the match.
McManus took possession in the middle third and cut to the right inside the 18-yard box before going top shelf with a right-footed blast into the opposite corner.
McQuaid stayed unbeaten in its past five games with the tie.
“They moved the ball really well side-to-side and tried to tire us out a little bit in the first half,” Oliver sid of Penfield. “Most teams go a little bit more direct. I thought it was really impressive to see them do that. We had to adjust to that and make some changes to see if we could cut that out from happening.”
The goal was the fourth of the year for McManus.
“We made one mistake in the first 15 minutes, but recovered from it,” Cotsonas said. “We did a lot of chasing because we knew that they wanted to build out of the back. Our strategy at the beginning was we are going to drop deep and try to contain the ball into midfield. When they get into midfield, it goes right out to the wingers. That’s what’s dangerous. We watched them play Schroeder. They stayed in and the ball just went from the center back to the outside back to the winger, and they just went one-on-one with all that athleticism and all that speed. We were like we can’t do that. We would get roasted. It’s not the result that we wanted, but we’re moving in the direction that we’re hoping to go.”
McQuaid will host Pittsford Mendon for a 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.
Penfield welcomes Webster Schroeder for a 7 p.m. start on Friday.
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