Walker named state boys soccer’s player of the week
Grace Christian goalie picked by NSCAA, Maxpreps for honor
Wednesday afternoon, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and MaxPreps announced their high school soccer players of the week for each state for Sept. 6 to 11 and the selection from Maryland boys was Grace Christian Academy senior goalkeeper Elisha Walker.
The state’s girls winner was Brooke Windsor from Cambridge-South Dorchester High School in Dorchester County.
In two games last week, Walker recorded a total of 42 saves as the Knights defeated Takoma Academy of Montgomery County 1-0 on Sept. 7 then played to a 2-2 draw against King’s Christian Academy of St. Mary’s County two days later. Walker recorded 25 saves in posting the shutout over Takoma and then had 17 saves in the tie with King’s Christian.
“We have a young team and we have not been playing well on defense,” Grace Christian head coach Dan Perrotta said, “but Elisha has been making a lot of great saves. The game he had against Takoma was just incredible. He was making one sensational save after another. It really was amazing to watch. I can’t thank the soccer coaches enough for selecting him. It’s a great honor.”
Walker, who recorded 12 saves in a season-opening 3-0 victory over The Calverton School on Aug. 26, got tested considerably more in the rematch with that squad on Tuesday. Calverton scored on its first shot attempt of the game less than five minutes in, but
Walker recorded 30 saves over the last 75 minutes as Grace (50-2, 4-0-2 MISAL) earned a 1-1 tie with their longtime Maryland Independent Schools Athletic League foe.
“Calverton had six new players from the previous game and all six were great athletes and great soccer players,” Perrotta said. “”As soon as they crossed midfield they were sending shots in. Elisha got his hand on the first one during a 3-on1 rush, but after that he made some tremendous saves. We played a Swiss cheese defense, but he made some unreal saves to keep us in it.”
Walker made at least 12 saves in each of the Knights’ first four wins to start the season. In a Sept. 2 4-2 victory over Southern Maryland Christian Academy, the fourth straight win, one of Walker’s dozen saves came on a penalty kick which preserved the Knights’ 3-2 advantage.
“Elisha has just been the vocal leader for us out there since the first game,” Perrotta said. “We have a lot of young players, a lot of new players and he’s really been helping to direct traffic out there. We have to get better on defense, but he’s kept us in every game and he’s just really playing at a higher level than I’ve ever seen before.”