WORTON — The Trojans were confident and coolheaded this week, winning a pair of varsity soccer matches by a total count of 9-1.
Senior midfielder Ethan Clark’s header in the 57th minute, off a corner kick from Noah Iacona, held up as the difference in a 2-1 triumph over visiting Mardela on Thursday, punctuating what Kent County High School head coach Dennis Hickman described as “a good week.”
KCHS (2-3) started the season 0-3, having given up 21 goals while scoring only three.
This included a “disaster” at Crisfield on Sept. 10 — Hickman’s word — where Kent County finished the match two players down because of red cards, and the fallout when those two ejected players were ineligible for the next match the following day at Easton.
Fast forward to Tuesday, Sept. 17, when Kent County dented the win column for the first time this season — 7-0 at home against Cambridge-South Dorchester. Seven different players found the back of the net for the winners: seniors Clark, Nick Stead and Kevin Mejia, and underclassmen Sebastien Cousineau, Dylan Peralta, Gabe Parr and Colbyn Lopez.
“The game plan was to work on our passing and finding the open man,” Hickman told The Evening Enterprise in a text message. “As coaches we were very happy with the ball movement and the goals just sort of came for us.”
Hickman ’93 is the first-year head coach at alma mater KCHS, after being an assistant coach in 2023 and ’22.
Matthew Cousineau ’95, also a KCHS soccer alumnus, is an assistant for the second year in a row.
Quin Hickman is working with the goalies on Kent County’s girls and boys soccer teams.
Husband-and-wife Dennis and Quin Hickman and Cousineau have sons on the team.
Kent County won its second game of the week, and of the season, on Thursday, Sept. 19.
“We did a good job of controlling play. They (Mardela) had some decent players in the center of the field,” Dennis Hickman said in a telephone interview Friday.
Sophomore right wing Sebastien Cousineau put the Trojans on the board in the 25th minute, finishing off a pass from the left side from freshman Peralta.
Kent County carried a 1-0 lead into halftime.
Mardela deadlocked at 1-1 in the 43rd minute when a direct kick taken from inside the 50-yard line bounced past a Kent defender and landed at the feet of a Mardela player, who scored from close range.
Clark restored the Trojans’ lead for good about 15 minutes later.
Kent County had a penalty kick blocked by the goalie and several other scoring opportunities, “but goals just didn’t come easy,” Hickman said.
The Trojans return eight players from last year’s 4-10 campaign. Also back is Clark, who lettered in golf last season after lettering in soccer in his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Returnees are: seniors Ethan Clark, Leyder Cruz (goalie) and Nick Stead (captain); juniors Noah Iacona, Colbyn Lopez and Stewart Hickman (captain); and sophomores Sebastien Cousineau, Gabe Parr, Jayden Miller and Bryce Jacobs.
The newcomers are freshman strikers Dylan Peralta and Yesner Perez and senior utility players Elias Rameriz and Kevin Mejia.
KCHS’ starting formation has four players in the back (Jacobs, Miller, Hickman and Iacona), three midfielders (Stead, Lopez and Clark) and three players up front (Paralta and Cousineau on the wings and Parr in the center).
Cruz is the starting keeper for the second year in a row.
Kent County travels to North Dorchester on Sept. 24 and returns home on Sept. 26 (4 p.m.) against St. Michaels in what the coaches described as a “rebound week.”
“We’re coming off a good week and I look to carry that into next week,” Dennis Hickman said.
“If we play our game, don’t have any injuries and don’t have any meltdowns, we should be right there,” he said.
