By: Ashton Townsend
The Spencerport Rangers girls soccer team won 2-1 over the Hilton Cadets to claim the Class AA title. Julia Maloney scored the game-winner with 45 seconds remaining. With the win, it’s now nine straight titles for the Rangers.
“This was not easy to do, Class AA was very difficult,” Spencerport head coach Jamie Schneider said. “To go through the season without a loss and to win another championship is remarkable.”
It wasn’t senior midfielder and leading scorer Lindsay Lenhard with 29 goals who got it done for the Rangers. It wasn’t senior forward Emily Peacock who had 23 goals. But it was eighth grader Julia Maloney with the game tied at 1-1, who came into the game with four goals on the year and got it done for the Rangers.
“I just saw the ball and I was like, okay, I’m going to get this,” Maloney said. “Then I was so nervous and I was like okay if I score this, it’s the game winner.”
Two and a half minutes into the game, Jayda Solomon received a long ball from Peacock on the right side of the field, took a touch and sent one from the endline into the top right corner to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
It was a battle in the midfield for the rest of the half as it stayed at 1-0 going into the break.
Coming out of the half, it was the Cadets who struck first. Five minutes into the half, senior Olivia Pilato off a free kick and a couple of deflections tied the game up at 1-1.
“Mistakes happen, balls bounce weird ways,” Lenhard said. "We have faced some adversity, we’ve been in close games at states so you just got to pick your head up and find another goal.”
With 13 minutes left in the game, Lenhard found Peacock for a one on one with the keeper and Sierra Bianchi came up with a huge save for the Cadets to keep it at 1-1.
The Rangers stayed relentless, and with 45 seconds left Maloney after a scramble at the top of the eighteen came up with the ball and slotted it into the bottom right corner to seal the win.
“It felt so good to score, and then when everyone came up to me it felt so surreal,” Maloney said.
With the season at an end, the Cadets finish 9-6-4 on the season. Olivia Pilato ends the year with six goals and nine assists. Sierra Bianchi had 93 saves on the season.
“We had a lot of close games throughout the season,” Hilton head coach Nino Pilato said. “It was the pathway in sectionals we wanted and to eventually get here and try and knock off the reigning champions. The pressure was on them, we had nothing to lose and we gave our all.”
With the win, Spencerport will take on the winner of Clarence vs. Lockport from Section VI in the Class AA State Regionals.
“I kind of learned from the girls before me that there is more to come,” Lenhard said. It’s great to win a sectional title and to be able to celebrate tonight and on Monday we’ll be at practice ready to go.”
Spencerport is undefeated on the season (18-0-1) with a tie to Williamsville South of Section VI. With the ninth straight sectional title, they extend its record of most consecutive titles in Section V Girls soccer history.
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