Dylan Stiffler '24 led the way with five goals as the boys' varsity soccer team defeated two local rivals by blanking Bishop Walsh (Cumberland, MD) 8-0 on Tuesday, October 10 and then topping Shalom Christian Academy (Chambersburg, PA) 5-2 on Thursday, October 12. Both games were played at home on Steiger Field.

Stiffler scored a hat trick against Bishop Walsh while Gavin Boyd '27 scored twice and Ewan McDowell '27, Jaekwan Kim '26, and Derrick Park '25 scored once each. Park and Sam Menendez '24 each had an assist.

In the Shalom game, Stiffler and Christian Concordia '24 put the Storm ahead 2-0 early with beautiful goals set up by clever touch passes as Mercersburg advanced the ball. The Flames scored on a penalty kick midway through the first half, but Mercersburg scored twice more in the closing minutes of the half to take a 4-1 lead at the break. Concordia picked up his second goal by streaking past the defense to snag a through pass from Derrick Park and deftly maneuvering past the diving goaltender. Ewan McDowell scored the fourth goal by curling in a corner kick that confused the defense and found its way into the net.

Stiffler added another beauty two minutes into the second half by rocketing a shot from near the top of the box that just clipped the bottom of the crossbar and went in. Shalom scored the final goal with about five minutes to play for the 5-2 final.

The two straight wins moves Mercersburg to 4-5-2 on the season with a game at Blair Academy (Blairstown, NJ) on Saturday, October 14 at 1 pm.