Last night the Fairmont Firebirds Men's Soccer team battled the Troy High School Trojans at Fairmont
Park Stadium. The Birds played with a singular purpose, which was attack from the opening whistle and never cease their assault until the Trojan defense was battered, bruised, and justly defeated come the final whistle. In the first two minutes of play, Gavin Weaver sent an opening salvo whistling just over the crossbar, and the attack continued with quick, metronomic passing that sent Torin Brock into the penalty area with his shot just missing wide left. Weaver and Brock would link up in the eleventh minute when Weaver cut in from the right touch line to dribble across the box and find Brock in space, who curled the ball with his left foot inside the far left post for a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, the Trojans had their best chance of the game when their forward sped past his marker with just keeper Gavin Fourman to beat, but the senior produced a spectacular foot save to keep the Birds ahead.

Fairmont continued to dominate the run of play and pressured the Trojan defense into turnovers in their defensive third. Nassim Hennaoui stripped the ball from a defender in the twenty-seventh minute and released a shot that just missed over the crossbar. A minute later Bien Niyonkuru found himself with the ball in the visitors’ penalty area where he slid the ball to Grey Danner, but the shot just missed the target. Bien nearly had his name on the scoresheet in the last minute of the half, but the Trojan keeper kick-saved the shot giving the visitors some hope as the teams looked forward to the second half.

Those hopes were dashed with less than a minute played when Brock sent a daisy-cutter from the
corner flag to the top of the box where Will Herman smashed the ball into the net. The Trojan keeper
did his best to keep the game close, saving a low shot from Danner in the forty-fourth minute, and
Weaver forced another low save in the fifty-second minute. Seconds later, the lead would grow to 3-0
when eventual man-of-the-match Freddy Irakoze picked up a pass from Chris Schafer, dribbled toward
the penalty area and placed a curling shot inside the right post. Nine minutes later, Danner heaved a
long throw-in to Will Herman who sent a left-footed shot through the crowd and past the keeper for his
fourth goal of the season. The onslaught continued, and with twelve minutes left in the game, Weaver
picked up his second assist of the night by playing the ball to Irakoze who capped off the scoring for a
comprehensive 5-0 victory over the Trojans.

The joy amongst the players and home crowd was palpable, and with the victory the Birds look to continue their good form next Tuesday, September 2 at Fairmont Park Stadium against GWOC rival Springboro High School. JV kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. and Varsity kickoff is at 7:15 p.m. Roll Birds!