Bradford High and Warren have developed quite the rivalry on the soccer pitch over the years. So when the Owls fell to the Dragons 4-2 earlier this season, you can be sure they wanted payback on their home turf.
On an appropriately chilly Thursday night, revenge was served as Bradford blanked Warren 2-0 at Parkway Field. The victory moves the Owls’ record to 9-7 on the season.
“I know the boys are happy,” Bradford coach Wes Lohrman said. “With the proximity of the two schools and our move into District 10 and playing them twice a year, it’s become a bit of a rivalry. It doesn’t really matter at any given point what either team’s record is, you know it’s going to be a hard-fought game and a battle.”
The damp, cold atmosphere had little effect on the players, with both teams going full-bore from the first whistle. Warren was controlling a majority of the possession in the early going, but the Owls were able to prevent many shots from reaching the net.
At the other end, Bradford made sure to make the most of its opportunities.
With just over 20 minutes left in the first half, Mike Bosworth made a nice run up the right wing and played a ball to Brent Kennedy. Rather than fire a shot on net, Kennedy smartly let the ball pass through his legs to an oncoming Cadyn Sutherland.
Sutherland then produced a beautiful strike to beat Warren keeper Seth Harrington and make it 1-0 Bradford.
“I told Brent sometimes the best pass is no pass at all,” Lohrman said. “ And [Cadyn’s] finish was outstanding. It was top corner. Seth’s a good keeper and Cadyn was able to make him pay.”
Warren would come up with one of its best chances of the game just five minutes later. A well-struck corner kick took a sudden redirection, but Bradford goalie Evan Schmidt was right there to make a great save, one of his 10 on the night.
“Evan does a heck of a job in goal,” Lohrman said. “This season he’s faced a tremendous amount of shots. One of our focuses has been to limit the number of dangerous shots that he does face.”
Bradford’s second goal once again showed the Owls taking better advantage of the chances they had.
With a little over 10 minutes to go in the half, Kennedy had the ball around the 30-yard line in the Dragons’ end. After taking a peek at net and seeing that the goalie was off his line, the senior let loose a beautiful lobbed shot that found its way into the back of the net.
In an otherwise closely-matched game, Bradford’s ability to make its chances count proved to be the difference.
Warren had some good looks late in the second half, but ultimately couldn’t find paydirt. This was due in no small part to the effort of Schmidt in net, who came up with another huge save in the late going.
A redirection left the Owls keeper out of position, but he made a superb adjustment to knock the ball out of play at the last second. It was Schmidt’s second straight shutout (having blanked DuBois earlier this week).
With only two games left on the regular season slate, Lohrman believes his team is rounding into form at just the right time.
“We’ve been doing some different things,” he said. “We put it into effect for the DuBois game and we carried it over tonight. We’re moving in the right direction and we’re doing the things that we need to do at the right time of the year.”
Bradford’s JV team fell 2-0. Gavin Piscitelli finished with seven saves in net.
The Owls are off until Monday when they host Meadville at 5 p.m.
