Bradley Soccer junior midfielder Bobby Smith (Springfied, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin H.S.) is blogging throughout the team's season-opening trip to the East Coast. His second report recapping Wednesday's dramatic, season-opening win at Saint Peter's can be read below. The Braves will travel to Connecticut Thursday in advance of Friday's game at Fairfield.
September 1, 2010
The Bradley Braves 2010 campaign is off to a good start after a dramatic, 2-1 victory over Saint Peter's. It wasn't the prettiest game of soccer that has ever been played, but in a game that saw the Braves receive three yellows and one red card, our team showed a great deal of toughness. The scrappy style of the game coupled with the extreme heat forced Coach (Jim) DeRose to go deep into the bench, but each player did his part to help put one in the left side of the column.
Obviously everyone's adrenaline was pumping for the first game of the year, and the Braves came out hard early. Tommy Fritze, a.k.a. "Pain Train," smashed a header past the Peacocks' keeper only five minutes into the game, and we took the 1-0 lead into halftime.
The second half is when the game really became interesting. Saint Peter's equalized on a free kick just outside the box in the 65th minute, and shortly after the goal, Keith "Dynamite" Mach was sent off with a questionable red card. Despite being a man down, we were able to battle back: freshman Wojciech "Woj Woj" Wojcik, inspired by his love for the pregame techno music, scored an unbelievable game winner with less than two minutes left in the game. Just when it seemed that the Braves had their first victory in hand, the Peacocks were awarded a penalty kick. However, keeper Kyle "Korn" Orne came up big when it mattered most, reading Assaf Sheleg like a book and blocking his shot.
Aodhan "McLovin" Quinn used his wand of a left foot better than Harry Potter himself could have, and he assisted on both goals in his college debut. To quote fellow freshman Keegan Balle, Quinn was "on dime patrol today."
The rest of the night and tomorrow will just be used as time to rest and refuel, and hopefully we can use this momentum to carry us to another victory Friday night against Fairfield.
Bobby's Blog
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