It was decided weeks ago that Bradford’s junior varsity players would play during the team’s varsity matchup against Northern Potter on Monday, according to head coach Wes Lohrman.

On a cool, rainy Monday night at Parkway Field, the Owls’ starting lineup consisted of seven freshmen and four sophomores and the team remained unbeaten with a 5-3 victory over the Panthers, extending their record to 13-0 ahead of the team’s final regular season finale against Port Allegany on Wednesday.

Colin Conneely led Bradford with two goals during the win, as Andy Mangold, Lucas Johnson and Jake Franz each added markers of their own. Conneely, Mangold and Mitchell Strauss each recorded assists and goalkeepers Tristan Dragoone and Alex Rimer combined for 15 saves.

For Northern Potter (0-13), Ryan Langworthy recorded two of the team’s three goals and Cale Kosa scored the other. Goalkeeper Pat Lehman made 15 saves during the defeat.

According to Lohrman, the team lost a lot of junior varsity games due to the four-county bubble schedule, but they tried to get JV games in whenever they could.

“These guys are coming out working just as hard as the varsity. We’re a team,” Lohrman said. “I was really pleased with how they played. We kind of got tired there in the last three minutes and let some goals in, but it’s a learning experience and I’m glad that we were able to have that opportunity to do that tonight coming out of a situation where we technically lost almost 15 junior varsity games because of the current pandemic.”

Conneely got the scoring started with his first goal of the game at the 31:16 mark in the first half. His marker was followed by Andy Mangold’s direct kick that found the back of the net, giving the Owls a 2-0 lead with 20:41 left until halftime.

Kosa made it a one score game with a goal at the 11:49 mark, but Conneely netted a penalty kick for his second goal of the night at the 6:29 mark to send the Owls into halftime with a 3-1 lead.

A Lucas Johnson header off an assist from Conneely and Franz goal extended the Bradford lead to 5-1 before Langworthy scored back-to-back goals in the final five minutes of the game.

There are a few underclassmen for Bradford who had already been playing varsity minutes prior to Monday night, but the win over Northern Potter allowed Lohrman and his staff to watch the entire young group play together and see what they may be capable of.

“We know that this group moves the ball around,” Lohrman said. “Obviously they’re going to grow into themselves as high school players, but we’re excited to see where this group of players can take us in the future.”

Lohrman said the varsity players will be back and ready to go for Wednesday’s regular season finale at Parkway Field.

With one final regular season game to go, Lohrman and his staff have been working on getting the Owls prepared for the postseason.

Along with making sure the team goes into the playoffs healthy, one thing Lohrman and his staff have stressed to the team is the importance of being multidimensional and using all parts of the field.

“We have a tendency to get into a track and we get stuck there and we keep doing the same thing and obviously that becomes easy for the opposition to defend,” Lohrman said. “So we want to make sure that we are multidimensional and we are capable of using all parts of the field… I think if we’re able to do that, we have the ability and we have the speed to be able to be successful in the postseason.”

“We want to go in with full health and really kind of take what we’ve built as a definition of our team and who we are,” Lohrman said after the game. “With all cylinders firing, we’re hoping to go into the playoffs ready to come home with another district title.”

Bradford will be hosting a Port Allegany team that has a 4-7-1 record going into Wednesday’s matchup. The last time the two teams met was on Sept. 29 when the Owls came up with a 3-0 road win over the Gators.

“I like playing against (Port A head coach Aaron) Clark’s teams,” Lohrman said. “He does a good job putting his groups together. I know he’s got a younger group this year, but he coaches them up, and so we’re looking forward to them coming in and being ready to play and giving us a good game for the end of the season.”