Faith Christian routs Church Farm in District 1-A semifinals

SELLERSVILLE >> William Bolla of Faith Christian jumped for joy and he had plenty reason to.

Bolla had just given his Lions (9-1) a 3-0 lead and the game had quickly become a route against Church Farm (6-6-1).Faith Christian went on to win 5-1 against the Griffens Monday at Faith Christian Academy in a District 1-A Boys Soccer Semifinal.

Korey Schuster led the Lions’ scoring with a goal and an assist.

“I feel like it was an all-around great effort,” Schuster said. “We all put 100 percent into this game. We believed we could be really good and we just came out as good as they were.”

Faith Christian dominated the time of possession and came away with 16 shots on goal, 25 chances, eight corner kicks, a couple free kicks and one penalty kick. The other scorers for the Lions were Jordan Cordi, Bolla, Nick DiPietro and Carlos Sanchez. Travis Harwick added an assist.

“It means we are really deep,” Schuster said. “We have a lot of players that can score on this team. We are a really big threat on offense.”

Church Farm began the game by getting the first corner kick, first shot on goal and forced the first save. After both teams felt each other out for the first few minutes, Cordi opened the scoring when he tipped a ball into the net eight minutes in. A little more than a minute later Schuster added to the lead to make it 2-0. Before the game was 15 minutes old, it was Bolla’s turn.

Faith Christian’s Heys Huber shot toward the Church Farm net, but his strike ran out of steam. Bolla finished the job by pouncing on the loose ball and hammering home the goal for a 3-0 Lions’ lead. The Lions kept the ball on the defensive side of Church Farm for much of the game limiting what the Griffens could do.

“They had the one kid up top number 10 (Joel Richmond), who we focused on,” Faith Christian coach Ryan Clymer said. “I think that made it a little bit more difficult when they brought number 11 (Senior Gyamfi) out from the back and they had two guys (who could score). When they did that we decided to sink our back line a little bit more and put one person to be the target guy to go get that first ball. The second person was just playing cleanup in the back. We went from a flat back and were playing sweeper style at the end just to keep everything in front of us.”

The defense apparently worked as three defenders shaded Richmond and goalie Christian Peev made a save on a Richmond free kick. Church Farm also only had four shots on goal. This style of defense made life easy for Peev, but harder on Church Farm goalie James Cromartie. Cromartie made six saves, but batted other balls away and collected chances that could have made it a double-digit game.

The second half didn’t come any easier for Church Farm. Sanchez was pulled down in the penalty area and DiPietro converted the ensuing penalty kick for a 4-0 lead.

“We didn’t play our best game tonight,” Church Farm coach Jason Whipple said. “We didn’t come mentally prepared. The better team won tonight.”

Gyamfi then spoiled the shutout a few minutes later when he took a pass and scored to get within 4-1.

“It was really satisfying,” Gyamfi said. “As you can imagine we were down 4-0. It brought a lot of attention to the fact that we still had a chance in the game. That made a big difference. It impacted the second half a lot.”

Sanchez got that goal cushion back with 48 second left in the game when he took a pass from Harwick and shot on an empty net. Faith Christian will now go on to play Christopher Dock Thursday at 7 p.m. at Souderton High School. Clymer said it was a good bounce back from a 2-2 game with the Griffens earlier in the season and a good step to repeating as district champions.

“They are focused,” Clymer said. “This is the last match these seniors are going to play on this field. We take pride when we put on the whites and have home games. We want to be the toughest team on the field.”

Faith Christian Academy 5, Church Farm 1

Faith Christian 3 2 – 5

Church Farm 0 1 – 1

Goals: FC: Jordan Cordi, Kory Schuster, William Bolla, Nick DiPietro, Carlos Sanchez. CF: Senior Gyamfi.

Assists: FC: Kory Schuster, Travis Harwick. CF: None.Saves: FC: Christian Peev 4. CF: James Cromartie 11.