Churchville-Chili
9-9 14 14

   March, 26, 2010 - Churchville-Chili is a team that has seen incredible growth over the past five seasons. The Saints demonstrated last year that a large roster is not necessary for a team to succeed as they finished the season with only seventeen players on their roster. They played most games with closer to thirteen. The Saints finished third in Monroe County Division II (behind Thomas and Irondequoit) with a 3-2 record (8-8 overall). They finished as seeded (seventh) in the tournament with a win over Spencerport and a loss to Thomas.

Of the Saints eight losses, five were within three points (Aquinas 8-11, Pittsford 5-6, Irondequoit 5-6, Hilton 11-14 and R-H 8-9). The Saints also defeated the Little Irish during the second outing (16-9). They have become a strong program in their short history and look to extend their growth with hopes to become the first west-side team to make the semifinals in Class A.

With only seventeen players on the roster at the end of last year (including three brought up late in the season) graduation was predictably hard on Churchville-Chili. Four players graduated including three that are continue to play in college. Keith Preston (St. Joseph's) was named Second Team midfield and was a key for the Saints face-offs. Preston finished with 6g-9a. Ben Swan (Eastern University) and James Liberi (Nazareth) both graduated from the Saints defense. Liberi was named to the Honorable Mention list. Goalie Adam Difulvio will also be difficult to replace with no additional goalie on the roster last season. Coach David Childs will have to look to for new blood to replace him between the pipes.

Offensively, the Saints are returning their leading scorers in Ryan Yunker (43g-25a) and Jon Hemink (39g-27a). Alex Pavone (25g-13a) will join Yunker and Hemink in the attack and last year's offensive strength will continue. Pavone, Yunker and Hemink were responsible for 63% of the goals and 71% of the assists for the Saints last year. Hemink (RIT), Yunker (Bryant) and Pavone (Potsdam) have made commitments to continue lacrosse in the fall. Yunker was fifteenth on the points leader board for all of Section Five last year. At the midfield Churchville-Chili will look to Taylor Kolmer, Scott Shamp and Adam McWilliams to step up from last season.

With the graduation of two of their starting defenseman the Saints only have two defensemen returning. Dan Fingland will look to bring stability to the defensive end as the Saints look to a new goaltender.

Coach Childs writes, "Every game will be a true test and we look forward to the challenge." With Canandaigua moving to Monroe County Division II the Saints will have an even more difficult challenge in their division. However with all three of their strongest competition playing in Class B, the difficultly of their schedule will hopefully prepare them for the Class A tournament. With the current league orientation Churchville-Chili has three additional out of league games to schedule and Coach Coach Childs has scheduled them against Spencerport, Aquinas and Brighton. Churchville-Chili is certainly a team on the move, and should be fun to watch this year.

Top Returning Players:

Top New Players:

Updated:03/26/2010