I want it to be flawless and I'm not sure I could freehand the pentagon and hexagons flawlessly. What's the secret? Is there a secret?

Are you doing fondant or buttercream? If you are doing buttercream then you could print out a hexagon and laminate it. Then press it into the cake. Then you would have the perfect shape. Or they may have a cookie cutter at the store.
If you are doing fondant then you could do the pencil transfer method. (never done it but heard it works great) Or the cookie cutter would work on the fondant and you would just lightly press it on to make the shape.
HTH
Jen...

Are you making a soccer ball cake or cookies? The wilton soccer ball pan (it's a half ball) has the soccer ball lines imprinted in the pan which transfer to the baked cake. (I have one in my photos). I have also made soccer ball cookies (in my photos too) but ended up freehanding them because I didn't have any means of making an imprint. The first ones I made were not the greatest, but I got better as I went along. (I had to make almost 80 for a soccer banquet). Doing them completely by hand is very time consuming, so start early!

I've made a soccer ball cake before using a pyrex bowl and then carving the cakes round (the bowl left it with a cone shape). There is a pic in my photos. Anyway the way I went about marking the hexagons and pentagons is very mathematical and I've advised others before but they didnt' want to do it my way. Once you have the shape its pretty easy to make the design. A real soccerball has even sided hexagons and pentagons so they line up perfectily. Anyway, let me know if you want my technique.

I printed out a template and then made tiny holes at each point with a toothpick all around the cake

It will be a flat soccer ball on a cupcake cake so I'm guessing the printing a template idea would be the easiest. Thank you for the quick suggestions.