Could a home away from home lead to bigger things for the Royals?

Back-to-back seven-win seasons have the Delmarva Christian boys’ soccer team focused on taking the next step in the program and making the school’s first appearance in the state tournament. This year, they will welcome opponents to Sandhill Fields for their regular-season games.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys, and when that happens, you have to fill some spots,” said coach Luke Shiderly. “We lost our whole midfield, so we had to plug in, but we’ve got guys like Jay Parrish and Cam Smithson who could play anywhere, and I'm impressed a lot with some of them coming out and stepping up.” 

In the Royals’ first preseason game, the boys lost 6-5 to Woodbridge, but outplayed the starters to the tune of 5-1.

“We're still a private, Christian school, and against Woodbridge, we scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of the game,” Shiderly said. “That’s something that as a coach you get encouragement from, because that shows that from last year where we did have some closer games with some of the bigger public schools, we can go, ‘All right, we can hang with some of these guys.’”

The players are also encouraged by the preseason.

“It's been really promising,” said senior James Baxter. “I can see the potential we have. We just have to start clicking.”

“I'm really excited to see what happens this year, and I feel like we have a really good squad this year,” said senior David Sagers.

Baxter, Sagers and fellow senior Josh Strawhecker are important pieces on the backline, but they will be unable to send Harrison Schlabach streaking down the sidelines until later on in the season. The senior suffered an injury before the start of camp.

“The hope is that I do well in physical therapy and hopefully get back the last few weeks of the season and get a game or two in,” Schlabach said. “I’ll just be at practice every day and be with the guys and support them.” 

While his speed and touch may not be there, the winger is hoping his IQ helps his teammates. 

“Just kind of watching the other team and giving info to our guys and talking to our guys about the stuff I'm seeing,” Schlabach said.  “Just helping out in any way; supporting them on and off the field.” 

Delmarva Christian opens its 2025 season at Sussex Tech at 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 4.

“I'm ready to just enjoy this last season with my team and my family,” Sagers said.