WORTON — Kent County High School varsity boys soccer coach Dennis Hickman has resigned himself to the reality that the route to a region title leads to unbeaten Perryville, the top seed in the upcoming Class 1A East Region I tournament.
The Panthers have eliminated the Trojans in each of the last two years, and are the two-time defending region champs.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
In order for the Trojans to make the trip to Perryville, they will have to get past another Cecil County rival.
No. 4 seed Kent County (5-7) will host No. 5 seed Bo Manor (3-8) in the region play-in match Wednesday at 5 p.m.
The winner will face Perryville (11-0-1) in the region semifinals.
Hickman likes the Trojans’ chances of coming out on top Wednesday.
“I look for us to do well,” he told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview Monday.
“It’s a home game,” he said, “our last home game” of 2024.
The Trojans wrapped up the regular season Oct. 15 with a 5-1 loss at North Caroline.
Hickman gave them the rest of the week off — it was homecoming and there was no school Friday, Oct. 18 because of the state teachers convention.
Practice resumed Monday.
“We’ve got a couple of formations we want to work on, but nothing new,” Hickman said about Monday’s and Tuesday’s practices.
“We’re not suddenly reinventing … there’s a reason we won five [matches] in a row,” he said of the Trojans’ mid-season streak.
The top three seeds in the 1A East I — Perryville, Colonel Richardson (8-4) and St. Michaels (6-6) — receive first-round byes and automatically advance to the region semifinals Oct. 25-26.
During the season, Kent defeated St. Michaels, 2-1, but lost to Colonel Richardson, 2-1. Both matches were played at KCHS.
NOTES: The winner of Kent-Bo Manor will travel to Perryville for one region semifinal, while Colonel Richardson will host St. Michaels in the other semifinal.
The region championship is Oct. 29 at the highest remaining seed.