Pirates roll through Redskins, 9-0

PERKINS TWP. — Perkins played most of Wednesday's boys soccer match with 10 players. Didn't matter. The Pirates stayed unbeaten on the season with a decisive 9-0 win over Port Clinton at Firelands Health Stadium. Garrett Corso led the scoring onslaught with two goals and two assists. Perkins, which has outscored its five opponents 44-7 this season, improved to 4-0-1 overall and 3-0 in the Sandusky Bay Conference. "It wasn't quite to plan, but we knew we had a really strong team," Perkins coach Paul Lea said. "Once we went down to 10, the game plan didn't change that much. It was to be aggressive. "The referee seemed to have a bit of a soft whistle so we had to check ourselves on those and stay on our feet and not make any more fouls. We wanted to dominate and look after the ball and take our chances." Kaden Camp got the scoring going with a shot from in front of the goal eight minutes into the match. Mateusz Dixon made it 2-0 when he cut through traffic and scored at the 29:50 mark in the first half. About a minute later, Perkins' Anthony Bonica and PC's Griffin Miller collided going for control of the ball. Bonica suffered a cut near his right eye and Miller was carted off the field. Bonica was given a red card and Perkins played a man down the rest of the match. "The referee said it was serious foul play," Lea said. "From my perspective, the ball was bouncing. The boys went to head the ball and clashed heads. Hopefully their player is OK. Anthony got a cut under his eye and I think he came off worse in the end. There was no malice. The referees saw what they saw." Perkins added on from there. Titus Normington-Slay scored to make it 3-0 before Ryan Wells scored to give Perkins a 4-0 halftime lead. Wells, who is part of the Pirates' talented senior class, didn't come off the field. "When you go down to 10 men you have a lot more ground to cover," Lea said. "I didn't take him out for the entire game, same for our back line. He dominated the midfield. He was creative, he was driving at them. He has no quit. He wins every tackle and is graceful when he has the ball at his feet. He can really hurt teams with his range of passing. "His huge contribution is the work and the ground he covers defensively. He is irreplaceable. I really don't plan on taking him out in many games this year. He was the best player on the field today." Wells, a defensive midfielder, knew what was expected of him. "I"ve been there before," he said. "Last time we played Port Clinton at home, we were on 10 guys. We have an experienced roster so we've dealt with that. "For me, it changes the way I play a little bit. It puts a little more of a burden on everybody so everybody's gotta run that extra 10 yards." Perkins scored six goals in the second half — two by Corso. His second goal came off an assist from Jackson Cassidy, who juked his way through one of Perkins' football end zones before assisting Corso. Nicholas Coiffard, Kohen Fullerton and Talon Walton topped off the scoring. Corso and Dixon each finished with two assists. Camp, Maddox Boggs and Normington-Slay also had assists. Caden Hanson made 11 saves in goal for Port Clinton, including stopping a penalty kick. The Redskins (1-3-1, 1-2-1) visit Clyde on Monday. The Pirates travel to Sandusky on Monday for another SBC match. "I don't want to get lazy or think that we have anything given to us," Wells said. "I thought this game could've been tight. I want to take every game seriously."