After suffering some figurative bumps and bruises, Northampton’s boys’ soccer team recovered with conviction to defeat Nazareth 2-0 last week and Dieruff 8-0 this week on its home turf.

“We responded nicely in the Nazareth game,” said Northampton coach Adam Bastidas. “We came out with more intensity than in the previous two games. We had a little more of a chip on our shoulder, and the effort was there.”

The previous two games were losses, one to Central Catholic, and one to Parkland. It was a third game, one against Emmaus, that Bastidas felt the Konkrete Kids definitely should have won.

“We were 2-0 until the Emmaus game. We should have stolen that game,” Bastidas said. “With Central, that was a strange game, and I thought we looked pretty even, but we couldn’t score. Central would lob it up the field to someone fast, and they would score.”

The K-Kids were losing motivation, and it showed in Northampton’s game against Parkland.

“Parkland was a tough one,” said Northampton center back, Matt Peluszak.

Whether it was the fact that the K-Kids’ next game, against Nazareth, was in Northampton’s stadium under the lights, or that the Kids were ready to put the brakes on their downward spiral, Peluszak said they stayed focused and grinded it out to a 2-0 victory over the Blue Eagles.

“We had a couple good blocked shots and slide tackles, and we were winning the ball in the air,” he said, “and the forwards did a good job putting pressure on their defenders. It was challenging.”

This past Monday, the K-Kids defeated Dieruff 8-0.

“In this game, everything really clicked well, and we did a good job keeping possession,” said Peluszak. “We’ve been working on pinching in, passing along the back, and communication is huge. We made the right passes, and that’s when things came easy.”

Cameron Peploe scored twice against the Huskies and also had an assist. Ryan Keenan also scored and had two assists.

Trevor Hanushak, Tyler Andrews, Jason Santos, Austin Graver, Dominic Jackson, and Paul Connolly did the rest of the scoring for Northampton. Jackson also had an assist.

Goalkeepers for the K-Kids were Morgan Heffelfinger and Brady Rimple, but Dieruff took no shots on goal. Mamari Fadi made five saves for the Huskies.

This Friday, Northampton will host Freedom.

“Overall, I think we have good skill and a decent understanding of the game,” said Bastidas. “We have a few very good individual, solid, soccer players. Having two or three game changers is helpful, and we’re slowly getting better as a team.”