CENTRAL NEW YORK – Having risen to no. 5 in the state Class C rankings with its 10-0-1 record, the Bishop Ludden boys soccer team now set its collective sights on making a push for the top seed in the Section III playoffs.

A key to that mission was claiming last Tuesday’s game against Fabius-Pompey, a game that, like many other this season, was close and low-scoring but would go in the Gaelic Knights’ favor, 1-0.

In fact, this score replicated their Sept. 10 meeting in many different ways and was the fourth time overall this season that Ludden claimed a 1-0 victory.

Here the first half was scoreless, F-P mostly thwarted and held to three shots overall, each of them stopped by Trey Dennis. This was rewarded in the second half.

Jack Ruddy, taking a pass from Jack Marvin, put in the go-ahead goal. This was precisely what happened four weeks earlier, the same pair of players responsible for the game’s only scoring play.

Now Ludden met state no. 3-ranked Tully two days later, the Black Knights eager to bounce back after a 3-0 defeat at Manlius-Pebble Hill, the only team to draw the Gaelic Knights this fall.

Yet no one would keep Ludden from continuing to excel on defense, keeping Tully quiet and doing just enough on the other end to prevail by a 2-0 margin.

While Trey Dennis was stopping each of the six Black Knights shots he faced, Ruddy again notched a big goal, this time with Colden Sheen also converting and Blake Sheen earning an assist.

This week culminated Friday with Ludden putting away Jordan-Elbridge/Cato-Meridian 5-0 with a first-half blitz by Colden Sheen, who poured in four of the goals and assisted on the other, by Ruddy. Max Boyea twice earned assists and Nick Brunger added an assist.

West Genesee, who had once won eight in a row, was going through a four-game skid before breaking out of it last Tuesday night in a 6-0 romp over Corcoran/ITC.

Up 3-0 by halftime, the Wildcats had five different goal-scorers, with only Logan Scott finding the net twice. Tighe McMahon, Luigi Cannata, Paul Toumbacaris and Sean Dunning had the other goals, with Aaden Couse getting two assists. Single assists went to Brandon Glowacki, Christian Ball and Bryce Wells.

WG then beat Henninger by that same 6-0 margin on Friday night, the six goals coming from six different players – Dunning, Toumbacaris, Ball, Nick Lamanna, Jeff Mercer and James Ginestro. Wells had two assists, with Scott, Cannata, Connor Lamberton and Kyle Klaben in the assist column.

J-E/Cato earned its third victory of the season last Tuesday night, a wild 4-3 decision over Syracuse Academy of Science entirely due to the skills of Collin Tiel.

Trailing 2-1 at halftime, Tiel, who already had a goal, burned the Atoms for a second-half hat trick to run his game total to four, with Riley Frigon-King twice getting assists and single assists going to Salas Romero Curro and Ayden Campion. Each of Alex Kunz’s four saves proved important.