By By ADAM FISHER / Vigilant/Argus
NILES - Cassopolis made Brandywine's defense work in Monday night's second round game of the Lakeland Conference soccer tournament.
Lucky for the Bobcats, their defense was up to the task.
Brandywine shut out the Rangers on its way to a 2-0 victory at home. The win advances the Bobcats to Thursday's fifth-place game against Berrien Springs, also at home.
In other tournament action, Buchanan fell 3-0 at Bridgman and Edwardsburg won 5-0 at home against River Valley. Bridgman will now play at Edwardsburg in the Lakeland Conference Championship game at 5 p.m. Thursday
Buchanan will take on River Valley at home in the third-place game. Cass plays at Coloma Thursday in the seventh-place game.
In Edwardsburg, the Eddies took a 4-0 lead in the first 20 minutes of the match to cruise to victory.
Doug Shuttleworth and Phillip Turner both scored twice to put the game out of reach in that period.
A goal by Josh Marschke with 11 minutes left to play sealed the victory.
Two fast-break goals from Matt Wieger gave Brandywine all the scoring it would need, but its defense held the Rangers at bay as they threatened throughout the first half.
Cass spent the majority of the first half attacking. Most the half was played in the Bobcats' half of the field. But for their aggression, the Rangers had few shots on goal, thanks to Brandywine's stingy defense.
The Bobcats didn't have many scoring chances in the first half, but when they got them, they capitalized. Wieger was the catalyst in Brandywine's offense, turning two long outlet passes into break away goals, the Bobcats' only scores of the game.
His first strike came at the 22:39 mark of the first half. Brandywine cleared the ball from its end by kicking it deep into the Rangers' field. As the ball bounced toward the penalty box, the Rangers slowed down because they expected the goalie to grab it.
Cass' goalie was slow to the ball, and Wieger beat the Rangers to the ball. When the goalie moved out to stop him, Wieger easily poked the ball by him.
Wieger's second goal with 8:29 left in the first half was almost identical. Only this time, Wieger beat the defense first and fielded a perfectly placed pass to beat the goal-keeper.
McNamara said he was impressed with Wieger because of the way he scored. He didn't try too hard to score. Rather, he was patient in beating the goalie twice.
Wieger nearly pulled a hat-trick, missing a few feet wide on two shots in the second half.
Brandywine was more aggressive in the second half, keeping the ball in Cass' half of the field most the time. Cass had a few near-scores, but Bobcat goal-keeper Jake Harris had two diving stops in the second half to save the shutout.
McNamara said his team played better than it had in the past few games, two straight losses. He'd still like to see his team pass better and play with more intensity on Thursday, he said.