St. John's Prep captures Brooklyn/Queens Class A girls soccer crown

Doug Raba couldn’t help but marvel at the enthusiasm shown by his St. John’s Prep team when the final whistle blew.

“Immediately everyone charged the field,” the coach said. “They jumped on the goalie [Ashley Rivera] and then they went after [star] Caroline Souza as well, even though she didn’t score a goal today.”

The Red Storm won the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Class A girls soccer regular-season title and took home the diocesan crown with a 3-1 win over St. Edmund on Thursday night at Aviator Sports Complex. The five-team league was formed just this season along with a Class AA division.

Courtesy of St. John's Prep

The St. John's Prep girls soccer team won the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Class A title.

“The enthusiasm shown by the girls is just amazing,” Raba said. “You wouldn’t believe that much noise could come out of that many people.”

He felt this team lacked energy early leading to some unforced errors, but that all subsided after they scored first. Effie Mellidese had a loose ball find its way to her just inside the box. She took one touch and scored to give the Red Storm a 1-0 lead at the half.

“I think after scoring the first goal that’s really what shifted us,” Raba said. … “After that first goal they got a lot more focused.”

St. John’s Prep (8-2-1), which garnered high praise all season from multiple Brooklyn/Queens AA coaches, didn’t take long to extend its advantage. Christina Caruso ran on to a ball up the wing and scored less than 10 minutes into the second half to make it 2-0.

A Maura Bellone goal got No. 2 St. Edmunds (6-4-1) within 2-1, but Christine Emigholz netted a score to push the advantage back to two goals and 3-1. Anfisa Gordeev collected 12 saves for the Eagles and Raba praised the play of his defense, including sweeper Jennifer Walsh.

“The defense is a lot more coordinated,” Raba said.

He believes the win is a big step in the right direction for the program, by giving it more exposure in the school. Raba hopes it will attract more players when they are freshmen, so even if they aren’t soccer players they can be taught the game. All of this season’s efforts certainly led to good things already.

“For program building, it’s going to be great,” Raba said. “They girls were diligent. They put in 100 percent at every practice and they saw that paid off.”

jstaszewski@nypost.com