CHESTERTOWN — Following the script from their first meeting two weeks earlier, the Patriots on Friday built a 1-0 lead at intermission and then pummeled their conference rivals from Faith Baptist School in the second half.
The final score was 5-0, with sophomore striker Fox Ford netting a hat trick and senior midfielder Brian Lloyd dishing out three assists.
Chestertown Christian Academy swept the home-and-away series to improve to 7-0.
“We’ve been a second-half team all season,” assistant coach Bo Ford said in an interview on the field immediately after the match.
He noted that when the two sides met Sept. 23 at Faith Baptist School in Salisbury, CCA led 1-0 at halftime before erupting for five unanswered goals over the final 40 minutes.
In the rematch here Friday, Fox Ford scored what held up as the winning goal about 20 minutes in. He collected a throw-in from Lloyd, turned and booted the ball past netminder Guy Talbott.
CCA dominated in time of possession and shots on frame in the opening half, but had only one goal to show for it.
Talbott made a number of terrific saves to hold the home side to one goal, while his teammates missed an opportunity to score on an empty net.
The Patriots ratcheted up their play from the opening kick of the second half.
In the 43rd minute, Lloyd’s through pass up the middle set up Ford for a header that forced Talbott off the line to make the save. In the 45th minute, Talbott leaned in with a shoe to deflect Lloyd’s shot to the near post.
Two minutes later, Lloyd chipped the ball over to freshman Micah Baugher, who found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
CCA’s John Stoltzfus, rarely tested in the first half, was made to work for the clean sheet after the break. He made a leaping grab at the right post in the 49th minute to keep Faith Baptist off the board.
Talbott showed his goal-saving chops twice in the span of 30 seconds on consecutive shots by Ford and Lloyd.
After that there was a subtle shift in momentum as the visiting Falcons started to assert themselves offensively.
In the 55th minute, Stoltzfus sprinted off the line for a sliding save. In a matter of seconds, he made another stop on a corner kick that tailed toward the net.
The Patriots nursed a 2-0 lead with plenty of time remaining.
What had been a game of kick ball in the first half developed into a genuine soccer match in the second half.
CCA had three more legitimate scoring chances — Baugher with a shot at Talbott’s feet in the 59th minute, and then Lloyd and Ford bang-bang from the right and then the left across the mouth of the goal three and a half minutes later — before Ford solved Talbott in the 65th minute to extend the spread to 3-0.
Freshman Colton Fox was credited with the assist on the Patriots’ third goal as older brother Fox ran on to a long through pass and then beat Talbott one-on-one.
Sandwiched between Stoltzfus’ saves in the 67th and 70th minutes, Fox Ford just missed with a header that sailed over the crossbar after Jacob Wade inserted the ball on a corner kick.
The Patriots cashed in again in the 75th minute on junior Craig Clark’s shot that grazed seventh-grade teammate Ryder Ford as the ball found its way into the back of the net.
Fox Ford completed his hat trick, and the scoring, in the 77th minute when he poked in the rebound of Lloyd’s shot that had been turned away by Talbott.
A three-man wall set up by Lloyd, Clark and Colton Ford blocked a Faith Baptist direct kick in the waning seconds to preserve the Patriots’ third shutout of the season.
“We played well in the second half, connecting our passes and moving the ball up the field,” said assistant coach Bo Ford, who has four sons on the team — including starters Fox, Colton and Gage, an eighth grader.
Head coach Rudy Draper was out of town.
This was the Patriots’ third match of the week, and second in as many days.
CCA is the two-time defending Delaware Valley Christian Athletic Conference champion.
There are four matches remaining in the regular season, including home contests against Fairwinds Christian School on Oct. 10, Greenwood Mennonite School on Oct. 14 and Calvary Christian Academy on Oct. 15.
