Chaminade powers past St. John the Baptist in boys soccer
Gianluca Falanga of Chaminade watches his shot score during a CHSAA boys soccer game against host St. John the Baptist on Tuesday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Antonio Ruffo picked himself off the turf, took a deep breath and readied to take a free kick from 40 yards out with 5:18 left in the first half.
He found an angle he liked and lofted a beautiful ball into the box that was tracked perfectly by Gianluca Falanga, who headed in the fourth goal of visiting Chaminade’s 5-0 win over St. John the Baptist in CHSAA boys soccer on Tuesday.
“The service was so good that I didn’t have to move that much,” Falanga said. “It was just a matter of losing my marker and once I lost him, it was just a casual flick.”
Less than five minutes into the game, Jack Veletanga sent a corner kick into the box that rattled off a few Cougars defenders before Blake Donahue put it in the back of the net. Eight minutes later, Veletanga delivered another corner kick into the box and once again, Donahue was right there for the rebound and put in another goal, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead.
“All our players are always moving around, so the defenders can’t really track us,” Donahue said. “It makes it easier for us to get in space, find the ball and put it in the back of the net.”
Chaminade’s swarming defense helped the Flyer’s control possession for most of the game. It seemed as if every time the Cougars sent a pass in the air, a Flyer won the header.
The effort was led by the back line of Ruffo, Franco Ferazzoli, Ronin McAuliffe and Andrew McConaghy, but Chaminade was almost always the fastest to the ball on both sides of the field.
“We want to play defense with 11 men,” first-year head coach Brian Anselmo said. “It starts with the back four, but we want everybody to be focused on defense.”
“We’ve been working on it since the start of the season,” Ruffo added. “It didn’t start off so great, in terms of winning headers. But we’ve all been focused on winning our 50-50 balls and that’s really what it comes down to.”
Daniel Ospina made 11 saves for St. John the Baptist (1-3, 0-1).
Chaminade’s dominant win comes after Saturday’s 4-0 loss to New Jersey powerhouse St. Benedict’s Prep, which was ranked No. 5 in the country in the United Soccer Coaches Poll earlier on Tuesday.
Chaminade (4-1, 2-0) has received votes in the poll each of the last two weeks and has a matchup with No. 6 Martin Luther King up next at Kellenberg’s Firebird Invitational on Saturday at noon.
“We were upset when we lost by four goals to St. Benedict’s. Yeah, they’re really good but we feel like we’re pretty good, too.” Anselmo said. “We were happy with the response today. It’s only the fifth game of the season and each game, we’ve seen improvement in certain areas.”
