Brandywine's Sam Low battles for the ball against St. Joseph Tuesday night. The Bobcats were defeated by the Bears 1-0. Brandywine is now 1-3 on the year. (Daily Star photo/RON HARNER)

By DON EDEN
Niles Daily Star

Former Buchanan girls’ soccer coach Chris Froelich traveled to ex-Lakeland Conference rival Brandywine’s new field Tuesday with his now St. Joseph contingent and outbattled the Lady Bobcats 1-0.

“In the first half, Brandywine took it to us and outhustled us to the loose balls as teams will be gunning for us so we need to learn to start better,” Froelich noted. “We overcame a penalty kick to win, which is important for this team as the adversity will be good to learn from and how to battle through it.”

Brandywine (1-3) had the free boot in front of Lady Bear (2-0) senior goalie Morgan Kline with eight minutes yet to play in the first half as a result of a tripping infraction against senior Michaela Greer in the box by a St. Joseph defender.

Junior Samantha Low failed to knock the zero off the scoreboard as her kick went wide right.

“We made great progress from last week and made huge strides,” stated Brandywine coach Evan Winkler. “The whole team has had only five practices together as some (six players) were still playing for a championship in basketball.”

Freshman Rachel Block broke up the scoreless duel with 62:38 showing on the scoreboard with a 15-yard roller from the left side of sophomore goalie Carlie Newman of Brandywine to give the visitors a lead it would not relinquish.

“Anytime you play good competition at their field it will be a tough game, but happy with the win as our intensity needs to get better at the beginning of games,” Froelich said.
Shots on goal went to the victors by a 13-3 margin with Newman making a dozen saves in the Bobcat goal crease.

“We tried to push the defense up in the second half since we don’t play teams with their speed very often, but it was a good defensive game as we controlled a very good team by playing hard,” concluded Winkler. “We will work them real hard before spring break next week as we have a lot of fun girls to look forward for the rest of the season.”

St. Joseph…1
Brandywine…0
Halftime score
St. Joseph 0, Brandywine 0

Second half
SJ – Rachel Block  63rd minute

Shots on Goal
St. Joseph 13, Brandywine 3

Saves
SJ – 3 (Morgan Kline)
BW – 12 (Carlie Newman)

Varsity records: St. Joseph 2-0, Brandywine 1-3