Elmira District Boys Soccer

The Broadway show "Hamilton" has had quite a run for the last three years or so. For much longer, the coach Hamilton has had a nice run of his own guiding Elmira City School District boys soccer teams.

Derek Hamilton reached 100 career victories as a varsity boys soccer coach in the district Thursday with Elmira's 2-0 victory over Corning at Ernie Davis Academy's Marty Harrigan Athletic Field.

The milestone includes six seasons at Elmira Free Academy, which combined with Elmira Southside in all sports in 2011. Hamilton has coached the Express all eight of those seasons. He guided EFA to Section 4 titles in 2006 and 2010.

"It’s a nice accomplishment, but you can’t make great paintings without great paint," Hamilton said. "It’s just a testament to all the kids who have come through. My favorite part about the program is every big win or everything that we’ve done that’s a milestone, I’ll get 50 text messages from ex-players, or emails, or calls, or Facebook posts, just saying congratulations.

"To me, we could win 500 games; my proudest accomplishment is just the community and program we’ve built over the last decade and a half."

Hamilton was presented a plaque commemorating the achievement by Express Athletic Director Tom Morrell. The team signed a soccer ball and gave it to Hamilton.

Two years ago, Elmira girls soccer coach Zach Sarno, a longtime close friend of Hamilton's, reached the 100 victory milestone.

Noah Sperduto and Max Odum scored the goals Thursday, with both coming off corner kicks in the first half. Joe Bruner delivered the assist on the first goal, and Evan Moore assisted on Odum's tally late in the half. It was the first career varsity goal for Odum.

"I’ve been playing with Hamilton for a while, and he’s a really good coach, a really good guy," Sperduto said. "It means a lot to get him his 100th win.

"He’s talking about everybody in the past, all the players texting after every win, congrats and stuff. It shows he has a really good connection with his players and everybody likes him."

Defensive game

Without the set-piece goals, there were few quality scoring opportunities for the teams within the flow of play.

"We’ve played better matches, that’s for sure," Hamilton said. "But Corning was resilient, and they were really tough to break down. We took advantage of the limited opportunities we had. Most of the game was played between the 18s. Not many scoring chances either way."

That Elmira was able to score twice was a credit to the Express' strength on corner kicks. Sperduto's goal came when he back-footed the ball into the net after the ball ended up on the ground. Moore's low-flying corner kick went directly to the right foot of Odum, whose blast from about 10 yards out went into the corner of the net after it was slightly deflected.

"It just comes back to hard work," Sperduto said of Elmira's play on the corners. "The ball’s bouncing around the box, our team’s the first one to get someone on it."

Quick start

So far, so good this season for the Express, which opened the season Saturday with a 3-2 victory over defending Class A state champion Vestal. Elmira is coming off a 10-5-1 season that saw the Express finish as the Section 4 Class AA runner-up.

Hamilton said the team has exceeded expectations over the six days of the regular season. Elmira is home again at 4 p.m. Friday against Owego.

"I think we have four seniors, so we're a super-young team," he said. "But we've got some guys that can play and take advantage of opportunities they're given. We're putting guys in good spaces in attacking positions, scoring some decent goals right now, which is nice for us going forward."

Worth watching

Sperduto is among the top players in Section 4 and a dynamic offensive player. Last season, he had 17 goals and seven assists to earn fourth-team overall all-state honors in New York. He has three goals this season, with two coming against Vestal.

A potential fourth goal was denied Thursday, thanks to a diving save from Hawks goalie Griffin Huff. Sperduto had the attention of multiple Corning defenders whenever the ball got near him.

"It’s a kid I’ve known since he was eight years old and I’ve watched him mature," Hamilton said. "He went from this gangly, frizzy-haired kid to this man that he is now. It’s really nice to see him mature both as a soccer player, but as a person as well. He plays regional (developmental program), he’s really up there in terms of his club soccer in the off-season, and he’s super easy to coach because he’s a great kid, too."

Hawks seeking first goal

Corning didn't get the easiest draw to start its season. The Hawks opened the campaign Tuesday at home against Vestal and fell by the same 2-0 margin. Corning is hoping to break into the scoring column Sept. 4 at home against Ithaca, a state semifinalist in Class AA last season.

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