Charles City piles on goals to earn first soccer win

Charles City's Jamie Johnson (14) fights for control of the ball against King & Queen's Bryce Robins.

Andre' Jones photo

Charles City’s soccer head coach Grant Martin had set modest goals for his first-year program: score a goal. The Panthers accomplished that feat in an Apr. 15 match against visiting King & Queen.

Seven times.

A pair of goals by Panthers Bryon Carpio, Brian Hicks, and Jamie Johnson were more than enough as the host Panthers earned a 7-3 victory, the first in the program’s history.

Early on, it was the invading Tigers who found the back of the neck. At the 24-minute mark, Bryce Robins corner kick bent directly into the net over Panther goalkeeper Michael Grubbs to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.

Shortly before halftime and at the 39-minute mark, Carpio scored the first goal in the program’s history, finding the left bottom corner of the net to knot the game at one apiece. One minute later, his second score put the hosts up 2-1 heading into the intermission break.

Offensive floodgates opened for the hosts after exchanging goals. Hicks scored three-minutes into second half while teammate Johnson punched one home after a deflection in the top center of the net. Another Hicks score coupled with Kylee Brinkley’s penalty kick scored elevated Charles City’s lead to 6-1. Johnson would add an insurance goal at the 70-minute mark as the Panthers notched their first win in the book.

After the contest, Martin spoke about the team’s offensive clinic the team put on.

“They just kept coming,” he said, referencing the goal scoring Charles City orchestrated. “I knew that type of performance was going to be there and I believe we can have outbursts like that.”

Martin, however, said that he did feel nervous after the visiting Tigers jumped out to the early lead.

“I was briefly worried about our morale after the (King & Queen) early score,” the victorious coach said. “However, we were able to turn over a new leaf and recover.

“Once we scored the first goal we realized how easy it can be,” Martin said as he wrapped up the interview. “For a team as green as we were a month ago this accomplishment means a lot.”

Charles City ups its record to 1-3 on the season.