Eight was more than enough on Monday night for Faith Christian’s soccer team.
Forty-eight hours prior on their same home pitch, Faith junior Korey Schuster buried an overtime penalty kick to give the Class A Lions (11-2, 7-0 BAL), a 2-1 win over AAAA Whitehall.
“There were nerves and my hands were shaking,” Schuster remembered. “But I had confidence in myself.”
Monday’s misty home match with Perkiomen School (7-3) was far less dramatic. Schuster recorded a hat trick in the game’s first 19 minutes, both David Brownell and Isaiah Robinson tallied a goal in each half, and Travis Harwick scored on a 20-yard tracer as Faith routed the Panthers 8-0.
“With all of their wins, I did expect it to be a little more competitive,” admitted Faith coach Ryan Clymer, “but we came out ready to play tonight. Absolutely.”
Brownell’s goal off of a Faith corner kick made it 2-0 in the ninth minute. “I crashed the net and the keeper missed it,” Brownell said. “I was there for it and put it in the back of the net.”
Schuster quickly added two more tallies. “It was everybody working together,” Schuster noted. “I clearly couldn’t have done it without all of these guys out there. The speed of everybody up top and then our center mids working hard trying to get me the ball. I just tried to put it in the back of the net.”
“When I’m in, I try and put as much pressure as I can to get the keeper and the defense riled up,” said Robinson, whose goal with 11 ticks on the first half clock gave Faith a 6-0 halftime lead. “That’s my job.”
“We usually go in with a lot of aggressiveness and physicality,” Brownell added.
The Lions had seven corner kicks to Perkiomen’s zero. Faith keeper Chase Peev, who didn’t make a save, could have done his calculus homework during some stretches of action. The Lions’ pressure kept the ball on Perkiomen’s side of the field for most of the game.
Faith is the two-time defending District One champion and it very much looked the part on Monday. “It’s our teamwork,” Robinson credited.
“Everyone touches the ball. Korey and Will (Bolla) in the middle. All of that plays a good factor in it.”
“We have a deep squad,” observed Clymer, who pointed out that Robinson came off the bench to score twice. “The level of play didn’t really drop off when other guys got on the field. Guys are nipping at the heels of the starters and they want playing time. They are hungry.”
Faith’s two losses are to strong AAAA programs; the Lions beat AAAA Academy Park 3-2 on Oct. 2.
The tough nonconference schedule “is definitely pointing out a lot of flaws,” Clymer said. “If we can hang with those 4A schools, then there is a good chance that we can hang with anyone in Single A.”
The Lions, who are No. 1 in the district power rankings, host AAA Chichester on Thursday. They travel to No. 2 Christian Academy (TCA) on Friday. Faith beat TCA 2-0 on Sept. 21.
“We got taught a lesson at Pennridge about intensity. We didn’t bring intensity that night and they took it to us,” Clymer continued. “From that moment on, in the second match of the year, we talked about bringing the intensity. You can always work to get the ball back. You can always play good defense. I think if we do that, our season can be pretty long.”
