FC Baltimore Moves Back into First

By FC Frederick

FC Frederick defender Jake Wilkinson intercepted an FC Baltimore Christos pass, turned to his left out of trouble, and launched a seemingly harmless ball back toward the FC Frederick goal.

Only one problem — FC Frederick keeper Sam Farrell was off his line and ended up watching helplessly as ball took one bounce into the back of the net, breaking a scoreless match.

The own goal in the 30th minute jumpstarted FC Baltimore’s 4-0 victory and seemed to summarize FC Frederick’s season.  FC Baltimore returns to the top of the Mid-Atlantic Conference standings with a 5-1-1 record, while defending conference champion FC Frederick slumps to 1-5-2.

In the 50th minute, Jake Dengler blasted a 35-yard free kick into the upper left corner as FC Baltimore took a 2-0 lead.  High schooler Ben Bender made it 3-0 in the 64th minute after pouncing on a ball that the FC Frederick keeper could not cleanly catch.  Kyle Saunderson capped the scoring in the 78th minute with a header on a corner kick served by Daniel Baxter.

For FC Frederick, the result had a similar feel — a 1-0 halftime deficit, a lack of serious offensive threats followed by conceding multiple second-half goals.

FC Baltimore outshot FC Frederick 17-11. 

Farrell finished with three saves for FC Frederick, while FC Baltimore keeper Casey Beyers had four saves in posting his first shutout of the NPSL season.

Photo Credit: FC Frederick