Proving its strong performance against No. 2 McDonogh, earlier this week, was no fluke, the St. Paul’s soccer team went Top 20 hunting again on Wednesday and the host Crusaders bagged No. 11 Archbishop Curley, 2-0, in Brooklandville.

Not so long ago, St. Paul’s resided in the MIAA A Conference with the likes of McDonogh and Curley, so facing top ranked teams is nothing new for the Crusaders, who have proven to have an excellent defense thus far in 2010.

Against the Friars, Rotemi Lademo had a pair goals for coach Greg Schneider, and Will Ridegley had both assists.  Lademo put the Crysaders ahead just ten minutes into the game, and he gave them an insurance goal with ten minutes left in the second half.

“On the first goal we ran our play, and it went smoothly,” said Lademo.  “I came in for the sweep, and got the goal.  It was all timing, and I just timed it right.”

Ridgely was more descriptive.  “I take the corner kicks, and on the first play, we have a guy who comes out and ‘dummies’ the ball; on the first goal ,we had two guys ‘dummie’ it and it rolled across the middle and Rotemi was there to finish it.”

Lademo said he was lucky on the second goal. “I got a deflection and put it in the back of the net,”

Kevin DelMonte handled the nets for the Crusaders for 79 minutes, and Luke Wilhelm finished up with a minute to play.

“After the McDonogh loss, we really put forth the effort in practice; we really wanted to beat Curley,” said DelMonte

Junior Gavin Llewellyn made a big contribution on defense.

“We came out real strong,” said Llewellyn.  “Curley is real fast, and we knew we had to control the ball in the middle, and we did a good job with that.”

Schneider said that his team is playing very well.

“They’re a very skilled, a very technical team,” said Schneider. “We thought we had to extend a little bit, and put some pressure on them.”

Schneider also commended Lademo and Ridegley.

“Will served some great balls, and Rotemi is not afraid to mix it up, and he made some things happen.”

A reflective coach Barry Sitz said that his team just didn’t come out ready to play.

“Today, they played harder than us, they created more chances than us,” said Stitz.  “I hope we learned a lesson today.”

St. Paul’s 2, Archbishop Curley 0
AC      0   0     0
SP    1   1     2
Goals: SP-Lademo 2
Assists: SP-Ridegley 2
Saves: AC-Gordon 7; SP-DelMonte 8.