It wasn’t the cleanest soccer game you’ll ever see, but the Bradford High boys sure will take it. The Owls overcame some early bad luck to top Saegertown 7-4 on Monday at Parkway Field.
Bradford was paced by a hat trick from Colton Swanson as well as two goals and an assist from Ian Grady.
Despite creating a lot of early pressure on offense, Bradford conceded the game’s first goal in unusual fashion. A case of miscommunication between Owls goalie Colton Schmidt and one of his defenders led to an own goal that put Braford behind 12 minutes into the game.
“We’ve been working on how we move the ball around and building up from the back and resetting our offense so we can get more passing lanes,” BHS coach Wes Lohrman said. “Obviously that kind of backfired on us a little bit. We had a little miscommunication and we put the ball in the back of our own net.”
Bradford kept up the pressure, creating chances thanks to the good work up front by Swanson and Brent Kennedy.
“I was very pleased with our movement of the ball,” Lohrman said. “We had supporting options in multiple places. We had a lot of opportunities. We had a lot of corners. We forced their keeper to make a lot of saves.”
The breakthrough finally came with just over 14 minutes left in the half when Grady made a great individual effort to fight through several tackles and find the back of the net.
Bradford took the lead with three minutes left on a perfectly-placed long shot from Brett Degolier, who noticed the Panthers keeper off his line and lobbed it over his head and into the goal.
Saegertown would respond quickly coming out of halftime. A redirected free kick by Lain Scott early in the half tied the game at 2-2. Scott would score again just four minutes later after some lackadaisical play by the Owls to give the Panthers a 3-2 advantage.
“While we were still moving the ball around, it was an almost tired style of play,” Lohrman said. “It was very quiet, it was almost methodical. I think they almost lulled themselves into a trance.”
But despite these errors, Lohrman was confident that his team would be able to right the ship.
“One of the things that I definitely did not want to see was panic set in, which really did not happen,” he said. “I wanted them to continue to play what we’d been working on. In the face of adversity, they still have to figure out a way on the field to work through it.”
It’s safe to say the Owls did just that, scoring four straight goals in a 13-minute span to take a 6-3 lead.
Grady got things started with his second of the night on a beautiful lob from the left hand side with just over 17 minutes left.
“Ian did a nice job of helping us with two goals today, putting the ball in the net and being a catalyst for change,” Lohrman said.
Less than a minute later, Kennedy found the back of the net on a shot that just made it through the keeper’s hands.
Swanson soon got in on the action on a pair of goals that both came on great assists from Grady and Alex Marone, respectively.
Scott completed a hat trick of his own for Saegertown with his third goal to make it 6-4 Bradford late.
But Swanson put things away for good with under two minutes left with his third goal of the game on a nice one-time volley.
“Colton being able to finish things off tonight was a good pickup for the entire team,” Lohrman said.
In addition to Grady and Marone, Bradford got assists from Kennedy, Brennan Grady, Ayron Hart, Jason French, and Colton Nichols.
Schmidt finished the game with four saves for the Owls.
At the other end, Saegertown’s Peyton Crays made 12 stops.
Bradford (7-5 overall, 3-3 in league play) will visit General McLane on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Bradford’s JV team topped Meadville 4-1. Gavin McGee scored twice, while Ryan Miller and Ethan Tate also notched goals. Gavin Piscitelli made three saves in goal.
