Pinecrest Academy’s boys soccer team opened the season by going 3-0 and winning The Crusader Soccer Classic tournament, which began Friday at Trinity Christian School.

The Paladins began play with a 2-0 victory over the Westfield School, as goals from David Reichardt and Nico Sanchez sent Pinecrest on to a semifinal matchup with the Piedmont School.

After dominating the first half, Pinecrest fell behind with two minutes remaining before halftime, when Piedmont converted a penalty kick. After the break, the Paladins stormed ahead 3-1 within the first nine minutes, when J.P. Metz sandwiched his first career goal between a pair of goals by Nico Sanchez. 

Pinecrest controlled the remainder of the game and padded its lead with goals by Ernesto Ochoa and Rico Garcia to seal a place in the finals. Pinecrest outshot Piedmont 27-2 for the match.

The Paladins hoped to meet tournament hosts and defending state champion Trinity Christian in the final, but the Crusaders were relegated to the consolation match after losing on penalties to Arlington Christian, 3-2.

 Pinecrest controlled the final from the start and broke down the Arlington defense in the 16 th minute of the match, when Labib Marmarchi and Reichardt played a one-two and Marmarchi smashed home the  first goal.

Immediately following the tap, Arlington caught Pinecrest goalkeeper Garcia off guard and scored from the midline 55 yards away.

It was all Paladins after that, though, as J.P. Holdsworth headed home a Reichardt cross with nine minutes left to play in the first half, putting Pinecrest back on top 2-1.

Reichardt then got on the score sheet himself, when Sanchez found him open in front of the goal six minutes later. Ochoa finished the scoring by putting in the final goal of the game with one minute remaining in the first half, earning a 4-1 win for the Paladins.