New Kent upsets unbeaten King William

New Kent’s Trojans had two goals in mind when King William’s Cavaliers came visiting for a non-district soccer contest last Friday — avenging a 4-0 early season setback and ending the Cavaliers’ unbeaten string at six games. They accomplished both.

First, the Trojans got an early goal from Jared Dickerson. Then after the visitors knotted the contest in the second half, Billy Boyer drove in the game-winner with just over two minutes left to hand New Kent a 2-1 upset.

“Our guys really wanted to win this one bad,” Trojan coach Clinton Leckie said after his team improved to 3-4-1.

“We just played a good, hard 80 minutes and didn’t give up,” he said, alluding to King William’s 24-14 edge in shots on the night.

“The defense stepped it up and was able to clear the ball out better than the first game where [King William] played long ball over the top and we stood there watching it instead of defending it,” he said. “Then it did help to score that first goal.”

Six minutes into the contest, Travis Nice launched a pass from the right corner to Dickerson, positioned in front of the Cavalier goal for the game’s first shot. The ball eluded Cav keeper Justin Hutchinson for a 1-0 lead.

The visitors answered by peppering New Kent’s defense with 10 unanswered shots over the next 20 minutes, but none found the net. Most were wide of the goal, and Trojan keeper Dylan Coons registered three of his 10 saves.

New Kent’s offense managed to relieve some of the Cav pressure late in the first half, but by halftime had taken just four shots. When play resumed, the Trojans opened with five straight shots, two saved by Hutchinson.

But with 25:30 to go, the Cavs’ Bryan Parker took a corner kick from Jamie Mitchell, driving a shot under the diving Coons to create a 1-1 deadlock. King William appeared to take control, launching five straight shots before the Trojans could clear the ball into the other end and manage a shot of their own.

Overtime seemed certain, but with less than three minutes to go, Cav defender Jeremy Butler tripped the Trojans’ Kyle Leckie just outside the box. On Leckie’s resulting direct free kick, a wall of Cavalier defenders blocked the attempt. The ball, however, bounced to Boyer who drilled the winning shot into the net past a pair of Cav defenders and Hutchinson.

“Billy was in the right place and finished it,” his coach said. “Thank goodness. I didn’t want to see this go into overtime.”