After playing Port Allegany to a 0-0 draw at the end of last season, Wes Lohrman and his Bradford boys soccer team knew pretty much what to expect from the Gators.
And despite dominating the time of possession and the chances, the Owls once again had to battle with Port deep into the second half.
Bradford was ultimately able to finish on its chances and edged Port Allegany 2-0 at Parkway Field on Senior Night Thursday, capping off the Owls’ 2018 regular season.
The Owls (12-6) outshot Port 23-5, unofficially, with Bradford dictating the play from the opening whistle. When Ian Grady finally broke the deadlock with 11 minutes to go in the first half, it proved to be all the scoring his team would need.
“Aaron Clark (Port’s coach) does a nice job with his kids year-in and year-out,” Lohrman said. “He’s built a very successful program so this is not a team that we ever have or ever will take lightly. We anticipated that they would play a strong game for the full 80 minutes, and that’s what they did today.”
Grady’s goal late in the first half came off a beautiful pass from the corner and the junior was able to take advantage of a some free space in the box and was finally able to finish on one of Bradford’s many chances.
The Owls’ second goal wasn’t nearly as pretty. After a bevy of chances that included a sprawling save and a shot that banged off the crossbar, Gavin McGee finally buried the ball into the back of the net to give Bradford a critical insurance goal with less than 13 minutes remaining in the game.
“I thought at times we were trying to do a little bit of playing too many balls across in the air and we weren’t really successful with that,” Lohrman said. “When we were finally able to get the ball out wide and get some crosses lower, Ian was able to capitalize for the first goal. The second was a bit messy, but we had people in the right places and they were crashing the net.”
Port Allegany’s (11-5) Brandon Peterson made 13 stops in net to prevent the game from getting out of hand.
The Gators, which were coming off of a 9-1 victory over Eisenhower on Tuesday, showed flashes of offense, but just weren’t consistent enough. Junior Howie Stuckey had a couple of nice runs in the second half, but Port was unable to utilize its team speed that has made the team so dangerous this year.
“We maintained pressure,” Lohrman said. “We didn’t give them a lot of opportunities to counter us and I felt like as we kept the ball deeper in their half, it kind of took away from their ability to use their speed. We had to make nine, 10 of their players come back and defend.”
Evan Schmidt made three saves in net to pick up the shutout win for Bradford.
The Owls honored seniors Jason French, Cadyn Sutherland, Brett Degolier, Colin Haskins and Mike Bosworth with a ceremony following the game.
Their seasons are far from over with, however, as the Owls will begin district play at some point next week. Although Lohrman isn’t completely sure of an opponent or the details of a scheduled game, he will be preaching a few things to his team as they prepare over the coming days.
“I feel like we have a strong core,” he said. “The biggest thing is that this group — from the starting 11 to the seven that come off the bench — is that they all need to realize that this is about them as a group and not about any individuals. If they can play together as a team, each and every one, and be one cohesive unit no matter who is on the field, this group can be really successful.”
The Owls have their minds set on avenging last season’s District 9 Championship loss to DuBois.
“These guys have a lot of motivation moving into the playoffs and they have some things on their agenda that they want to take care of,” Lohrman said.
Bradford won Thursday’s JV game over Port, 5-0. Cameron Austin, Jaydon Warnick, Hugh Kennedy, Andrew Kane, and Colton Nichols all found the back of the net for the Owls. Jerid Wilmoth notched two assists, while Nichols also added a helper. Gavin Piscitelli and Kennedy made two saves combined, with Piscitelli stopping a penalty kick.
