Twenty-five seconds.
It took No. 1 Faith Christian 25 seconds to turn a question mark into an exclamation point at Tuesday night’s District One Class A final at CB West.
Dock Mennonite stood toe to toe with Faith for the first 47 minutes of the game. Then Colin Moyer connected with Isaac Schuster for a goal with 33:13 remaining. Moyer followed it 25 seconds later by assisting Tony Luciano’s goal to put Faith up 4-1.
“My coach told me at the start of the second half to start the ball wider,” Moyer observed. “That produced a lot on those second two assists. I was starting wide, cutting down the line and finding my guys in the box. It really helps when they can finish.”
“We have some soccer savvy kids,” said Faith head coach Ryan Clymer. “They understand tactics, so when you have the chance to take a 10-minute break and go ‘If we just do three things differently, we’re going to get more opportunity.’
“Dock has two very good center backs,” Clymer continued. “When they went out, that opened up a door. As long as those center backs were in, they were making it very difficult for us.”
“We have a lot of fast guys on the team who can run down wings,” Moyer added. “I think their outside backs got tired.”
Schuster found the back of the net in the 64th minute to add the final tally in Faith’s 5-1 win. “On the second goal, our outside backs played a long ball over the top. I just held their guy off and slid it into the bottom corner,” Schuster shared. “The first goal, I remember coming across. The ball got played on the right side. Colin beat his man and then he cut it back. It came into the PK spot and I finished.”
It took the Lions just 3:39 to break the scoreless deadlock. Ryan Noel’s free kick found Luciano, who converted in the box.
Despite getting punched early, Dock did not roll over. Dock evened the score in the 32nd minute on Pablo Montaner’s one-timer. Faith roared back three minutes later when Moyer’s through ball got to Titus Gardner, who flicked it past the keeper.
Dock nearly evened it up 90 seconds before intermission. Zach Frederick’s free kick from 35 yards out needed a leaping save by Faith keeper Roman Sigafoos to keep from scoring.
With the victory, the No. 1 Lions three-peated as District One class A champions. Faith, who has been to the last two state title games, also three-peated as district champs between 2016 to 2018.
“I think our energy and mentality going into this year helped,” Schuster said. “We had a really positive mentality coming into this season. A lot of us really, really want this and that state title. We have a family culture.”
The Lions (17-3) defeated at least one team in all four classes this fall, and all three losses came to Class 4A playoff teams. Unbeaten against Class A or 2A competition coming into Tuesday, Faith had outscored those 14 opponents 108-2. Dock’s 3-1 Sept. 6 regular season loss was one of the strongest showings against Faith this season.
Faith wanted to “attack their outsides and keep the ball out of the air against them because they are big, tall and they are better in the air than we are,” admitted Clymer. “We wanted to keep the ball on the ground and possess it a little bit better, that limits their opportunities in the air. I think we did that for most of the match. We played possession, which is our style, and it created more opportunities for us.”
Both teams earned their finals ticket with Friday semifinal wins. Faith topped No. 4 Plumstead Christian (12-7-1) 4-0 in an evening match. Earlier in that afternoon, No. 3 Dock beat No. 2 Delco Christian 1-0.
“We’re a really young team with just one senior,” Moyer reminded. “We’ve played club together and it helps to bring that to the high school level.”
Faith starts PIAA play this coming Tuesday, when they play the District 12 champion at a site to be determined.
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