Bristol rebounds from loss to best Lakers
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ANDOVER -- Tuesday's game between Bristol and Pymatuning Valley had major league implications. The winner was all but assured at least a share of the league championship, so energy was at a high from the opening kick.
The Panthers won the day, however, downing Pymatuning Valley, 4-2 in Andover.
Coming off a disappointing loss to Grand Valley last week, Bristol was hungry to get back in the win column.
"This is a huge game for us, especially after the letdown we had against Grand Valley the other night," Panthers coach Cory Schrecengost said. "We knew coming in that they would be ready to go. We just played hard both ways. It was just a well-fought, good game."
While all but one goal was scored in the first half on Tuesday, whistles and possession changes bogged down the first 40 minutes.
Junior captain Ezra Shipman scored a pair of goals in the first half for Bristol (10-4-1, 7-2 NAC), the latter of which came on a penalty kick.
Pymatuning Valley's goals came from senior Ryan Beck and sophomore Aiden Taylor.
The second half was more open, but neither team broke through offensively, trading shots back and forth.
With a yellow card assigned to the Panthers and a free kick for Pymatuning Valley in the final seven minutes, the Lakers had a great opportunity to knot the game. Bristol goalkeeper Hayden Bortz made a save between a jam-packed netfront, however, to preserve the tie.
"Hayden came up strong on that," Schrecengost said. "At the beginning of the year he didn't want to play goalie. I had to really talk him into it and keep him going on playing. That's probably the best save of the season I've seen him have. We worked on some things after the Grand Valley game. He was down on himself. I just had a practice yesterday and told him to just keep working, and you'll get your chance, and that's where it was."
Around a minute later, Gus Workman put a floating shot on net that dropped in behind the hands of Lakers' netminder Colton Legg to extend the Panthers' lead.
"Gus came up really strong for us there. That's a senior move," Schrecengost said. "Just put the ball in the net. You never know what can happen. We told them at halftime, shoot on net. It's wet out. It's cold. You never know what's going to happen, and there it was."
Pymatuning Valley (9-4, 5-3 NAC) travels to Geneva today for a nonconference game. Down, but not out in the league race, Pymatuning Valley still has to face Mathews and a to-be-rescheduled game with Lordstown.
"We just gotta get back to hard work," Lakers coach Ryan Beck said. "We got a game tomorrow, and then we have two practices until our next conference game, so it's back to the grindstone."
The Panthers host Grand Valley on Thursday with a chance for revenge.