Winchester — In a close match between district rivals, Handley High School lost to Millbrook High School by one point twice before coming away with a 3-2 victory.
With the score tied at 2-2, Judges captain Seth Bridgeforth sealed the win with a powerful shot from 25 yards out, just beyond the outstretched reach of Pioneers goaltender Chris Kozlowski.
After Millbrook defeated Hundley 3-2 in an earlier game of the season, the Judges got revenge on the Pioneers, extending the Pioneers' losing streak to six games.
“Last year we were down one point a lot of times and this year we had to come back from being down one point,” Hundley coach Cosmo Barrio said. “It was good to see us continue to fight and never give up as we move into the postseason.”
Needing some energy early in the game as the Pioneers tried to contain senior Nestor Castillo, Coach Barrio moved Bridgeforth to the left wing to try and create more scoring opportunities.
“We thought Millbrook was making up some of the costs for Castillo, so we pushed Bridgforth out wide,” Barrio said. “The reason we took Bridgforth out wide was to see if he could attack their fullback, and he did, and he used a lot of space.”
The switch worked, and in the 74th minute, Bridgeforth (goal, assist) scored a goal for the Judges. Bridgeforth controlled the ball, looked up, found space and fired a shot into the back of the net. As Bridgeforth turned around with his arms outstretched, the crowd regained their focus and erupted in applause.
“I found the space I wanted and got some good shots off,” Bridgeforth said. “I knew the crowd was into the game and there wasn't much time left, so it felt great.”
There were few goal-scoring chances for either team in the early going, but the Judges began to dominate possession and recorded two clear-cut chances early on.
The Pioneers then regained their composure as David Myers (goal, assist) got the ball deep in Millbrook's attacking half and passed it to teammate Jonathan Richards in the middle of the box, who converted the chance to give the Pioneers the lead in the 27th minute.
“I told the guys to stay calm because we've been in these situations before and we've always come out of them at the end,” Bridgeforth said. “We knew we could compete with Millbrook and come back and we were the better team, so we just had to go out there and prove it.”
The Judges struck back a minute later, when Handley took the kickoff and drove down the field, before Bridgeforth passed to sophomore Nathan Langford, who smashed a shot into the top left corner of the goal to tie the score.
Play remained balanced for the remainder of the half with shots still tied at 5 for 5. Momentum was on the Pioneers' side coming out of the half, with Millbrook able to create some early scoring chances.
The Pioneers regained the lead thanks to their run-and-gun style of play. The Millbrook defense cleared the ball up the field, starting a two-on-one break. Brian Maguire slipped past a Judges defender and sent a through ball to David Myers, who slid a shot past goalkeeper Cole Stevens (six saves) in the 50th minute.
“I felt like we played the better game the whole game,” Barrio said. “There were a few times when we let our guard down for even a second and they hurt us. Millbrook has a striker up top, so if we let our guard down for even a second they're going to score.”
Ten minutes later, the officials countered when, after the Pioneers failed to clear a corner kick outside the box, junior Jesus Trejo got the ball and scored.
With the score tied, the Judges had four chances to score before scoring the game-winner, and Bridgeforth got three of them, but Kozlowski (nine saves) denied them, including one with a diving save in the 62nd minute.
