By PAUL GOTHAM
PERINTON, N.Y. — Trevor Scoppa scored in the 94th minute, and Fairport (1-1-0) grabbed a 3-2 decision over Pittsford Mendon (2-1-0) in a seesaw battle on Monday.
Scoppa took advantage of a second-chance opportunity and finished into an open net for the game winner.
“I just wanted to score,” the senior captain said. “I wanted to get this game done with. I was cramping, so, I was, like, here’s my chance to finish it now.”
The play started in midfield where Scoppa’s teammate Francesco Maniscalco played a ball between a pair Mendon defenders that caught Scoppa in stride.
After he slipped behind the defense, Scoppa was one-on-one with Mendon keeper, Miles Rae.
Rae got a piece of the first attempt, but Scoppa stayed with the play and found himself between keeper and the goal with the ball at his feet.
“The keeper came out, and I tried to chip it over him,” Scoppa said. “He tipped it, and it came to me perfectly. Just tapped it in.”
The goal was his second of the game. Scoppa’s first marker leveled the match at two with 5:19 remaining in regulation and helped secure overtime.
Maniscalco gave Fairport a 1-nil lead in the 14th minute.
Mendon rallied and scored twice in the second half to take the lead. The Vikings used the width of the pitch to create one-on-one matchups along the flanks to set up crosses into the Fairport 18-yard box.
Mendon used this tactic to create a 10-5 advantage in shots on target. Fairport keeper, Jared Mulley finished with eight saves on the day, none bigger than a sequence late in the first half when he stopped back-to-back attempts including a point-blank shot.
“Jared had to make some saves more than I would like him to have to make,” Fairport head coach Bill Teasdale said. “I would prefer we don’t let the entry pass to begin with, but once we do, our backs need to win it. Most of them, they did. But, you know, our goalie stepped up and made some big saves.”
Mendon entered action having outscored its first two opponents by a combined total of 9-2. The Vikings were held scoreless on Monday for the first fifty-plus minutes until Tyler Hopfinger connected from just inside the 18-yard box with 26:08 left in the second half.
Less than 15 minutes later, Hasan Salman finished off a pass from Naveen Sidhu to give Mendon a 2-1 lead.
“It was just a great battle to get us ready and have a great season,” said Mendon head coach Mark Hurley. “There are a lot of really good teams out there, and I feel real strong about mine.”
The game pitted a pair of reigning sectional champions with Fairport taking a third straight Class AAA title last fall. Mendon claimed the Class A championship. The two programs have combined for 35 sectional titles in all with Mendon at 22 championships trailing only Red Creek (24) in Section V history.
“We know that they are a quality team,” Teasdale said of Mendon. “We can take some positives away from this game. There’s things we need to do better, but there were a lot of positives as well.”
Mendon hosts Honeoye Falls-Lima for a 7 PM kickoff on Wednesday. Fairport travels to Penfield for a 7:30 PM start also on Wednesday.
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