Fall sports made a return to Parkway Field Monday night as the Bradford girls soccer team dominated Elk County Catholic 7-0.
Leading the way for the Lady Owls was freshman Kelsea Austin, who netted four goals in her high school debut. Senior Mackenzie Lucas added two more and freshman Emily Morgan scored one.
“I think they understand how we want to play, it’s a matter of they just have to get more and more comfortable with that,” Lady Owls head coach Warren Shaw said. “We maintained a lot of possession which is great, but we also have to make sure that we’re able to finish.”
It was Lucas who got the scoring started with a goal at the 31:30 mark to give the Lady Owls an early 1-0 lead which was followed by Austin breaking into the clear and scoring her first goal of her high school career with 11:13 to go in the first half.
Austin would then net another goal that was assisted by senior Chloe Shaw at the 4:43 mark, and then Morgan gave the Lady Owls a 4-0 halftime advantage after scoring off a rebound with just 22.4 seconds left in the half.
Even with the lopsided score, it could’ve been larger with the Lady Owls having numerous shots that just barely missed the net or hit one of the pipes.
Lucas began the scoring again in the second half as she knocked in a penalty kick for her final goal of the evening at the 35-minute mark that was preceded by a handball on ECC.
“She’s a ball of energy, that’s what she is,” Shaw said of Lucas. “She’s always going to be that way and we’ve tried to coach some of it out of her at times. (We) probably shouldn’t because what she does is effective.
With a 5-0 lead, Austin capped off her four-goal night with a score that bounced off the goalie’s hands and into the net at the 16:06 mark and then an own goal by the Crusaders near the end of the game was credited to her.
“Kelsea’s a special kid,” Shaw said. “She’s just a very good player and once we get a little bit further down the line, I think you can see her development from day one with us to now with how we want to play has been really good.”
Shaw later added, “I thought that Chloe, Kelsea and (senior Emily Bosworth) really did an excellent job in the middle of the field. That’s where we’re going to win all year long is with those workhorses in the middle of the field being willing to drive the ball.”
With three different players scoring goals for the Lady Owls Monday evening, it served as a testament to what Shaw said prior to the season about having different players stepping up and scoring.
In fact, shooting on goal is what the team probably spent the most time working on, according to the coach.
“You can see that there’s shots coming from all over the place,” Shaw said. “It’s really never been a number one focus for me, but we did a lot of work this year on putting the ball in the back of the net because you don’t have someone that is definitely labeled your goal scorer.”
On the other end, Bradford’s defense and senior goalkeeper Lea Kakolewski were able to limit scoring chances for ECC, which helped the Lady Owls control the game.
Shaw was pleased with junior Lauren Placer’s performance on the backline but also noted that there were some breakdowns.
“She’s going to take control back there and does a good job,” Shaw said of Placer. “I think our other two center backs were at times getting too high and wide and when that happens, you saw some breakdowns. When they stayed narrow, we were good. I thought some of the young kids came in there and played outside back and did a good job.”
With Monday being the first fall sports competition day for schools within the four-county bubble, Shaw said it felt good to be back on the soccer field for a game and emphasized to his team the importance of enjoying the game and not taking it for granted.
“For us, we said let the first 20 minutes — just go out there and run around. Have a good time and put a smile on your face and enjoy. After the first 20 minutes, let’s go win a game,” Shaw said. “And I know that sounds stupid, but where we’re at right now, we don’t know if they’ll get to play tomorrow, so go have a good time today.”
Next up for the Lady Owls is a home matchup against Ridgway on Thursday.
“I would expect us to come out a little bit looser,” Shaw said. “We’ll focus on a couple things the next two days as far as how to fine tune what we got going on and I think we’ll play better.”
