By Chris Teale (Photo/Chris Teale)

Despite a solid start to the season, the Bishop Ireton boys soccer team had been defeated by two Washington Catholic Athletic Conference opponents and was desperate to regain momentum in conference play.

The Cardinals wasted no time Tuesday against WCAC foe Archbishop Carroll, securing a 10-0 win that lifted their record to 6-2 and 1-2 in their conference.

Matthew Breiner and Alec Faddoul both scored hat tricks for Ireton, while Gabriel Sampaio, Tim Dyke, Liam Somerville and Adair Sempertegui also added their names to the score sheet. The Cardinals were ahead 3-0 at halftime, but took advantage of a tiring Lions defense to plunder seven more after the break.

Throughout the match, the home side enjoyed the majority of the possession and could easily have scored more goals but for the intervention of the woodwork, chances that went wide and over the bar, and the Carroll goalkeeper.

“These games are typically the hardest, where we try to keep the kids focused,” said Cardinals head coach Jon Norem. “In the first half I think they clocked 26 shots, and the keeper came up big on most of them. We also helped them out with missing the frame. It was about getting them focused on doing the little things, and a lot of the movement in the second half was much better as they opened it up.”

In its previous WCAC games, Ireton came up short against DeMatha and Good Counsel, losing 3-0 and 3-1, respectively. After two losses against traditionally strong teams, Norem said the victory was important to get the team back on track.

“We’ve started off with the tough matches,” he said. “DeMatha is always at the top of the table, and Good Counsel is usually top five as well. It’s always good to get one where you can get the three points under your belt, but I definitely would have liked to see a result against either DeMatha or Good Counsel.”

The hosts went ahead within the first seven minutes of the game after Breiner latched onto a through-ball by George Mereu and finished with a low strike after cutting in from the right-hand side.

Later in the first half, Sampaio had a low shot from distance sneak into the bottom corner of the net. Then Mereu set Breiner free again and the midfielder made no mistake in front of goal after a slaloming run through the defense.
After the game resumed, Faddoul took just 11 minutes to score all three of his goals, completing his hat trick with