BROCKWAY — It was a hard-fought, fast-paced game that featured end-to-end action, some chippy play and a couple of spectacular goals.
In other words, it was just another chapter in District 9’s best boys soccer rivalry between Bradford and DuBois.
In their ninth meeting over the past three years, the Owls jumped in front of the Beavers early and hung on late to preserve a 5-2 victory in the D9 Class AAA semifinals on Monday at Varischetti Field in Brockway.
The two schools have met in each of the past two championship games — with Bradford winning last year’s game — and split the season series this season. Owls (14-5) coach Wes Lorhman knew his team had to play a complete game to advance, especially after his team surrendered a two-goal lead in a loss earlier this month to the Beavers (10-9).
“The course of a season is a learning experience,” he said. “We had a few games at the end of the year where we probably should have closed them out. We made it a point of establishing ourselves early (last game) but we gave the game away.
“We knew that two or three goals was not going to be enough tonight. That was kind of the message on what we wanted to do and we wanted to stick to our game plan throughout the course of the evening.”
After how the offense played in the game’s opening 15 minutes, it was clear Bradford heeded Lohrman’s message.
Colton Swanson opened the scoring just two minutes into the game when he blasted a free kick off the crossbar. The ball then bounced around the crease and trickled past the DuBois goalkeeper before eventually ending up in the back of the net. It was Swanson’s first goal since missing more than a month with an injury.
But the key sequence of the game came about 10 minutes later.
After DuBois’ Justin Kalgren scored to make it 1-1, Isaiah Pingie put the Owls back on top less than a minute later on a pass from teammate Ryan Miller.
Then, Ian Grady scored on a marvelous free kick from the 20-yard-line that curled around the DuBois defensive wall and past the goalie into the back of the net. All three goals game within a 1:38 of game action.
Grady’s goal, that brought a Bradford-friendly crowd to its feet, was four years in the making, according to Lohrman.
“I told him it took him about four years to get that one because one of the first things he does when he shows up to practice is to go to those areas and he hits ball after ball after ball and I’m not going to lie and say they all go in,” Lohrman jokingly said. “Most of them actually go over and actually hit the high school. But tonight that extra time that he puts in pays off. He hit that really cleanly.”
Pingie tallied his second goal of the game less than four minutes into the second half on a pass from Grady to make it 4-1.
But the Beavers, with their season on the line, weren’t about to go quietly. DuBois scored on a penalty kick with 30 minutes to play and kept the pressure on the Bradford backline for the rest of the second half.
Goalkeeper Evan Schmidt (10 saves) had to make a few high-pressure stops late.
“We started the second half off a little sluggish,” Lohrman admitted. “The momentum was definitely shifting in their direction, we couldn’t connect any passes and I felt like we were working to kind of give the game back to them. But they were able to withstand, get themselves focused to overcome their tired legs and do what we needed to do the rest of the way.”
Jerid Wilmoth gave the Owls some much-needed breathing room when he tacked on an insurance goal with 10 minutes to play on a pass from Swanson.
“There were a couple goals that I was very pleased because they were a direct impact of how we’ve been working at practice with our ball movement and trying to build up playing through feet,” Lohrman said. “And if we can do that consistently, I think we’re going to be a pretty tough matchup on Thursday.”
The Owls will get top-seeded Clearfield — a school they did not play in the regular season — on Thursday at 6 o’clock back at Varischetti Field.
It’ll be the third straight trip to the championship game for Lohrman and his group of 16 seniors, but he’ll be expecting much more from them going forward.
“From here on, we can’t have those 10-15 minute breaks where the game slows down on us, or where our passing falls apart because during the next two games at least we are going to get into those situations against teams that will take advantage,” he said. “We need to make sure we are in control of ourselves, pass the way we are capable of passing and playing the way we are capable of playing for 80 minutes.”
