It was an uneventful evening for Free State keeper Elliot Johnson, exactly the scenario coach Kelly Barah prefers to see.

“I rather my keeper come in every day wanting to do something than being the dirtiest player on the field,” he said with a grin.

His Leavenworth High counterpart was not as fortunate.

Johnson’s slow night was the result of his teammates offensive prowess. The Firebirds (2-2) were constantly on the attack, setting up chances and peppering shots on goal in their 7-0 victory over the Pioneers (0-3) on Tuesday night at FSHS.

Despite the fact the Firebirds controlled the ball in Leavenworth’s defensive end for most of the contest and capitalized on numerous scoring chances, Barah said there were more plays to be made.

“To be honest, I would love to see a little more precision on the offensive side of the ball, “ he said. “But we’re definitely working on that. And when we get back into playing Sunflower League games, we need our forwards to be on point for us to get the kind of goals we got today.”

Aside from what could have been, nearly everything went right for Free State.

After a few early chances, the Firebirds earned a corner kick, in which Diego Gonzalez rifled the ball toward the crowd of players in front of the Pioneer goal. Though the Free State header attempt misfired, junior Ruben Ghijsen was there to bang in the rebound.

A few minutes later, Gonzalez stole the ball from a Pioneer defender and blasted a low liner past the keeper’s grasp to put the Firebirds ahead, 2-0.

The scoring opportunities continued to mount for Free State, which controlled the ball as if playing keep-away from Leavenworth. Juniors Zackary Thompson and Andrew Craig each added goals to give Free State a 4-0 edge at the half.

Junior Hunter Peirce opened the second-half scoring with a nifty goal, and senior Nathan Bowman tallied the last two once the game was all but over.

It wasn’t only the offense that was effective; the Firebird defense was just as sound.

Leavenworth was barely able to control the ball in Free State’s defensive third of the field, much less generate scoring opportunities. Any time it appeared a Pioneer forward was streaking toward the net, multiple Free State defenders would emerge to stop the rush and quickly end the threat.

The Pioneers finished with only a handful of chances, and a meager one shot on net.

“We worked a lot on defending together,” Gonzalez said. “As a team, we’re making sure we pressure every single time they get the ball, so they don’t have time to look and find a player to pass to.”

The Firebirds weren’t only there to prevent scoring chances, but to snatch away loose balls and maintain possession as well.

“We try to train that way, in terms of making sure that on every 50-50 ball, regardless of what it is, we win it, we beat them there,” Barah said.

Free State has won two games in a row and now is .500 on the young season.

The Firebirds will take on Olathe North on Thursday.

“Next is Thursday, after that, we don’t care,” Gonzalez said.

“We’re looking to get out of this week with a 3-0 record, move on and leave those two losses behind.”

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