POULSBO — The NK Explosion’s fall season can be summed up into one phrase, dominance through trust.

The North Kitsap BU12 soccer team had faith in its entirety; with faith comes confidence, and, so long as it emanates from one’s performance, confidence is a major component of success.

That was the lesson learned by Explosion this year as it completed fall league play in first place of the Gold Platinum Red division of the Seattle-area District 3 with an 11-3-0 record.

“These boys were committed to practice and to the team; they trained hard,” said Explosion head coach Darryl Wilder. “We set the goal at first place and they wanted that goal.”

It all started before the team’s first match in September. Through preseason tournaments, the team began to find out that it would be much stronger than the year before and trust between teammates began to form, Wilder said.

That consistency grew even greater as the team cruised through the first five games of the season with four wins and a tie. In the sixth game of the season, Explosion battled cross-county and league rival FC Kitsap Red to a 0-0 tie.

“We struggled with finishing early but as the season went on the boys started doing a lot better,” Wilder said of the team’s offensive progress.

The first match-up with FC Kitsap Red was the only game of the season in which Explosion didn’t score a goal. But on the other side of the ball, NK left many teams struggling to find the goal as its stout defense protected the net with nine shutouts during the course of the 14-game season.

“On defense, we told the kids to be patient and that you’ve got support,” Wilder said. “They played smart, they didn’t overcommit, never dove in.”

One of the NK defenders, Juan Ramierez, even earned the nickname “the pickpocket” as he would patiently lurk at sweeper then “before you know it he’d steal it from you,” Wilder said.

Ramierez and the NK defense earned respect from coaches around the district, and as the team’s offense invigorated, the Explosion train appeared unstoppable.

“Things started clicking and the boys were trusting each other; they knew there teammates would be there,” Wilder said. “We were patient this year up front, when we had the ball we’d wait for opportunities. It came down to the basics of being in the right place at the right time.”

NK’s offensive front spread it’s attack over the entire field, crossing for shots as well as assaulting from the center. Overall, the offense turned out to be quite consistent.

“We didn’t depend on one kid, we had nine or 10 who could score,” said Wilder.

As a team Explosion scored 38 goals — the most in it’s division — while allowing just six on the year.

“They hardly made any mistakes. When we did, we’d make a correction and the boys would do what we taught them to,” Wilder said. “All of them are just awesome.”

NK captured first place with an excitement bursting, 1-0 win over the eventual second-place team, FC Kitsap, in the teams’ second match-up of the season. Then Explosion rolled out of the season with two shutouts and a solid, 3-1 victory in the last three games of the season.

Next year, NK Explosion will be competing in the State Cup starting the second week in January and wrapping up in March. Next fall, the boys will be a part of the state premiere league which will take them to games all over the state, Wilder said. Anyone interested in joining the U13 team for the 2006 fall season can contact Wilder at (360) 697-6395.