Saturday morning at Paul Cline Stadium the environment was ripe for a letdown.
The Beckley boys soccer team entered the match against Buckhannon-Upshur on a nine-game winning streak, including a historic win over George Washington Tuesday for the first time since 2010.
There were also the events of homecoming week, which included a parade Wednesday, as well as a football game Friday night and a dance Saturday night.
Unfortunately for the visiting Buccaneers it was the exact opposite.
Scoring five goals before the midway point of the first half, Class AAA No. 1 Beckley cruised past the visitors from Upshur County, 6-0.
“It was a pretty efficient start to the game today,” Beckley head coach Steve Laraba said. “It was a long week and there was a lot going on during homecoming week. I want the guys to be a part of it and enjoy it. It is a good time. We also had the emotional, intense game at George Washington. Trying to reset for today could have been rough, but the guys handled it really well.”
The first four goals by the Flying Eagles came within the first ten minutes.
A.J. Bishop put Beckley up 1-0 in the second minute when he connected with Tyler Snyder on a corner kick.
Five minutes later, the Flying Eagles doubled their advantage on another set piece winner from Snyder. This time it was sophomore Ali Farghaly that punched in the winner.
“The guys are dialed in on it,” Laraba said about the set piece efficiency. “Tyler is making some good decisions on when and where to play the ball. The runs are coming from different people, in different angles and it is hard to defend that. When we are on, we are tough to beat.”
Snyder’s efficiency from the corner has naturally come with a lot of practice.
“I have practiced them for years. It probably started big in middle school,” Snyder explained. “Then going to travel (soccer), practicing in Charleston and playing with the Charleston team, I was there 30 minutes early every practice to just work on corners. Anything to get better. I put in the work and we have been getting goals off of them.”
Over the next three minutes it was junior Coby Dillon doing the damage for Beckley, scoring a pair of goals to give him 10 netters for the season to lead the team.
Dillon’s second goal came on another successful set piece for the Flying Eagles and Snyder’s third assist of the match.
“The first goal, Ali played a really good ball to me that I was able to slide in. Tyler then played a really good corner and I was able to head it in. I knew once we got scoring we would get rolling. We are playing pretty good right now,” Dillon said. “We put in a lot of work during practice on corners. A whole lot more than last year especially, and that has been paying off. Tyler has been really working at it with the corners and he plays a good ball.”
Snyder’s work on Saturday gave him a team high eight assists on the season.
“There are a couple of corners that we take, front post and back post, and our signature. I put my hands up and they know which corners are which and they try to get a head on it, a foot or anything they really can to put it in the back of the net. I trust my teammates a lot,” Snyder said. “Being the assist guy and celebrating with your team, I think it is the same as scoring the goal. Honestly if we keep doing that and don’t care who scores, we will do great things.”
Jackson Schroder made it four straight set piece goals when he scored on an assist from senior Michael Fayiah in the 16th minute.
“Our mentality right now is the game that is directly ahead of us and playing the way that we are supposed to play in that game,” Laraba said. “We are not taking any game or anybody for granted. We feel if we play to our potential that we are very hard to beat.”
Kofi Ackon-Annan rounded out the scoring for the Flying Eagles when he scored in the 27th minute with the assist going to Ayden Stafford.
The win Saturday moved Beckley’s record to 10-1-2 and was the fifth consecutive shutout this season.
The Flying Eagles host South Charleston Tuesday and welcomes St. Albans Thursday for Senior Night.
