After struggling mightily in the early stages of the new season, the Brandywine soccer program has utilized its team’s tenacious defense and stellar goalkeeping to parlay itself a nice little win streak.

The Bobcats improved their record to 4-8 with a dominating 4-1 victory over their Lakeland Conference rivals, the Cassopolis Rangers Thursday at Brandywine.

The match itself was played like a match-up of two rival teams as at times the play looked more like a Rugby match than a soccer game.

Sophomore Wyatt Eager set things in motion for the Bobcats in the 26th minute when his foot found the ball off of a deflected shot, which he promptly deposited between the posts to give his squad the 1-0 lead.

It didn’t take very long for Brandywine to find the twine again as junior captain Andrew Boocher headed the eventual game-winner into the net in the 34th minute.

Brandywine would get a pair of second half goals from Bobcat football kicker Zachary Schmidt and Steve Mugenzi in the 57th and 73rd minutes respectively.

Cass’ only goal of the game came off a penalty kick by Shawn Teter in the 53rd minute.

An elated Bobcats’ coach Evan Winkler said he was proud of his team’s perseverance both in the game on Thursday and throughout the tumultuous beginning of their season.

“I truly believe this group of kids have worked harder than anybody who has ever played for me. At practice and in games, they’ve really given it everything they’ve got. They have been playing great on defense and they’re really coming together now as a unit,” Winkler said.

“Hopefully, we can continue to build off of our recent successful play. Knowing these guys as I do, I can guarantee they’ll work harder than anyone to ensure that they don’t.”

The team will put its winning streak on the line again at home when they take the pitch against Granger Christian Monday at 5 p.m.

 

Cassopolis… 1

Brandywine… 4

Halftime score

Brandywine 2, Cassopolis 0

 

First half

B – Wyatt Eager 26th minute

B – Andrew Boocher 34th minute

 

Second half

C – Shawn Teter (penalty kick) 53rd minute

B – Zachary Schmidt 57th minute

B – Steve Mugenzi 73rd minute

 

Shots on goal

Cassopolis 7

Brandywine 10