The Bradley men’s soccer team hosted the Hotels at Grand Prairie Classic over the weekend at Shea Stadium. The tournament featured the Braves along with Fairleigh Dickinson, Utah Valley and Evansville.
The Braves opened up their tournament Friday night against Fairleigh Dickinson out of New Jersey. From the opening minutes, Bradley had control of the game. The Braves were getting their chances and attacking well, but were unable to find the net in the first half. Defensively, Bradley was able to limit the Knights to only one shot in the opening period.
“We made a concerted effort to try to lock up that [defensive] portion of our game,” head coach Jim DeRose said. “We gave up a lot of goals last year, so this year we’ve rallied around our defense so that our forwards and midfielders will have a chance to win us games. We changed our shape; we changed our system.”
In the second half, the Braves kept their foot on the gas. In the 87th minute, Fairleigh Dickinson missed a clearance, which allowed senior mid-fielder Jason Lesch to play a through ball just past two Fairleigh Dickinson defenders. Lesch’s ball reached junior forward Richard Olson, who scored the Braves lone goal and lead the team to a 1-0 victory.
“Lesch slotted me in, I looked up at the keeper and saw he was right in the middle of the goal, so I put it back post,” Olson said. “It all starts with defense, and I think we’re doing an amazing job on the defensive side of the ball. I think our midfield needs to find our forwards along with the outside-mids, and we can go from there.”
DeRose said he was happy about the way his two forwards were able to connect and put the team ahead.
“We missed a lot of chances early in the game, so that goal was a good testament to their work ethic, their fitness and their willingness as two forwards to turn defense into offense.” DeRose said.
The Braves hosted No. 16 Utah Valley in the second and final game of the tournament Sunday night. Bradley’s attackers struggled to find shots throughout the game, but the Wolverines were able to take advantage of an opportunity in the first half when All-American Skyler Milne scored to put them up 1-0, which was all they needed to pull out the win.
“Truth be told, we need to find a lot more goal scoring chances or else we’re going to be finishing with a lot of ties and coming up on the wrong side of one-goal games,” DeRose said. “We really just had about a two-minute spell there in the first half when we gave up a chance right before that goal, and then [Milne] got a chance and made the most of it.”
The Braves were held to only five shots over the entirety of the game and only managed one shot on goal, while Utah Valley stayed on the attack with four shots on goal and produced five corner kick opportunities.
“I thought we defended very well against a nationally ranked team,” DeRose said. “We limited their opportunities, but we just didn’t generate enough, and that’s going to be the focus of this week in training.”
The Braves will travel to Evansville, Indiana, this weekend to play in the ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic. Their first opponent will be Fort Wayne on Friday afternoon, followed by a Sunday afternoon matchup against Portland.
“As for Fort Wayne, I think it’s a must-win,” Olson said. “Portland is a really great team as well, but our defense is really good, so I feel like we can hold them to zero, and we’re going to get a few opportunities, and we’ll be able to put one away.”
