BMS drops close call against Forbes Road
BELLEVILLE- Despite not coming out with the victory Monday night, the Belleville Mennonite boys soccer team might have picked up a moral victory in their contest against a stingy Forbes Road team.
All the scoring came in the first quarter with Forbes Road holding onto the 3-2 victory at Belleville Mennonite High School Field.
In the second half, the Thunder instilled its will on the visitors as they controlled the tempo and for almost half of the period controlled the ball, pushing it down into the Forbes Road back-third.
Belleville’s goalie senior Colin Peachey was a strong force in the goal area, collecting 12 saves in a losing effort.
Forbes Road goalkeeper Owne Gilbert wasn’t as tested but stopped two late breakaways in the second to secure the victory. Gilbert finished his day with six saves.
Less than four minutes in the first half, Forbes Road picked up its first goal of the game.
Digging deep into Belleville’s defensive end, Forbes Road hit a small barrage of shots at the Thunder’s goal. A header by Bohen Henry just sailed passed the hands of Peachey, making it 1-0 with 37:33 still left in the half.
Caleb Treaster refused to let the Forbes Road lead to last too long. Treaster tickled the twine three minutes later on an unassisted shot at the goal, tying it one.
Less than one minute later, Forbes Road took back the lead when Talen Bair broke through the defensive end of the Thunder and blasted one home, making it 2-1.
Then the Belleville defense stood up and took control for the next 23 minutes. It kept sending Forbes Road back empty handed after a total of six corner attempts by the visitors.
The longer the period went on, the quicker the Forbes Road offense seemed to get.
With just over 10 minutes left in the half, Aaron Schepis picked up its third unassisted goal of the game, extending it to a two goal advantage.
But the Thunder was about to strike one more time before the intermission got underway.
As the clock ticked down to 2:30, Josiah Yoder broke out of the pack on the breakawy and sent an unassisted blast to cut the score to 3-2 at the half.
“It was a fourth loss by one goal this season. I told the guys the first 20 minutes of the game if we could avoid a little bit of a flat beginning and not get ourselves in a hole that would make a big difference for us,” Belleville coach Brian Renno said. “We are not huge goal scoring team and so our defense needs to be clamping down for the whole 80 minutes to allow ourselves to stay in the game.
In the second half we did. We gave ourselves a shot to win but credit their keeper. He had a great save at the end. Overall it was a step in the right direction for us.
Defensively, the Thunder held Forbes to a to only six shots on goal while their defense also had six shots at the keeper. Though there were no scoring in the second by either team, the Thunder led in time of possession and almost tied the game twice in the final minutes.
Yoder had an open breakaway that sailed right at Gilbert and a second breakaway attempt just missed hitting the goal.
Forbes led in the shots on goal department with a 22-14 advantage while they also held the edge on corner opportunities by a 8-4 margin.
Belleville Mennonite is back in action Thursday when it hosts East Juniata.