WORTON — After Kent County had piled up 13 goals in back-to-back victories the week before, Dennis Hickman acknowledged being perplexed by Monday’s 2-1 loss to North Dorchester.
“I felt like after the Mardela game [5-2 win on Sept. 19], we had figured out something related to scoring. It didn’t transpire against North Dorchester, for whatever reason,” the Trojans’ head soccer coach told The Evening Enterprise.
Captain Chris Sanchez, one of 11 seniors on the Eagles’ roster, netted both goals for the winners Sept. 22 at Worton Park.
After a scoreless first half, the sure-footed Sanchez booted a direct kick that grazed the fingertips of Kent County’s freshman keeper Jake Stumpf en route to the top left shelf.
Sanchez’s penalty kick in the 70th minute made it 2-0, and held up as the winning goal.
KCHS ended the shutout in the 74th minute on a Dylan Peralta strike.
Peralta’s goal seemed to energize the Trojans (2-4), who ratcheted up their offensive game.
Their best chance to level the score came in the 79th minute on a direct kick by Noah Iacona, whose offering from the left side was high and wide right.
Senior Peter Sine and Stumpf split halves in goal for KCHS.
In assessing the loss several days later, coach Hickman told The Evening Enterprise that “it’s almost like back to the drawing board.”
“We’re going to have to change our formation to get more offensive pressure,” he said matter-of-factly.
Kent County will test its new setup of three players up front and three players in the back tomorrow (Monday, Sept. 29) against Pocomoke.
The match will be played at Worton Park (at 4 p.m.) while the sprinkler upgrade continues at Trojan Stadium.
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In the back-and-forth junior varsity match on Sept. 22, Kent County rallied for a 2-2 draw.
KCHS sophomore Christian Merrill’s goal in the 31st minute produced a 1-1 tie that the teams carried into halftime.
After falling behind in the 41st minute, 2-1, the resilient Trojans came back for another tie with less than two minutes remaining when freshman Daniel Diaz’s cannon-like shot from about 30 yards out found the back of the net.
There was no overtime.
John Coleman went the distance in the net for the Trojans.
