Lady Falcons upend Bentworth, eye first section title
Lori C. Padilla
Brownsville entered Wednesday night’s girls soccer match against Bentworth with one blemish on its record, that being a 2-1 road loss to the Lady Bearcats on Sept. 16.
Lady Falcons first-year coach Chad Rohland took what he learned from that defeat and in the rematch he made sure he changed … nothing.
“I didn’t change anything,” Rohland said. “The game plan was the exact same going into this one.
“After the last time we played Bentworth I was a little disappointed at the effort that we gave the entire game. Today was the opposite.”
Boy was it ever.
Brownsville struck for two goals in the first three minutes and rode that momentum to a 3-1 victory in a meeting of the top two teams in Section 2-A at Redstone Field.
Two sophomores led the way for Brownsville.
Gloria Kovscek scored two goals, giving her 28 on the season, and Addy Brown drilled in the first goal and assisted on the second. Senior goalkeeper Ava Rohland, the coach’s daughter, made 13 saves.
The Lady Falcons improved to 13-1 overall and 5-1 in the section.
Bentworth, the WPIAL defending champion, fell to 4-1 and 11-2 and watched its 20-match section winning streak come to an end.
If the two teams both win out, Brownsville will claim a share of its first ever section championship.
“It was a huge win,” coach Rohland said. “We knew going in we needed that one if we wanted to at least have a chance to be co-section champions, if we finish our business.”
The Lady Bearcats have two matches vs. Beth-Center and one against California remaining while Brownsville wraps up its regular season at Chartiers-Houston on Monday and then home against B-C next Wednesday.
Rohland isn’t taking anything for granted and is focused on making his team aware they’ve won nothing yet.
“At practice I want to make sure we don’t get too excited and let them know we’ve got two more games to win to get our goal accomplished,” Rohland said. “We only beat Char-Houston 1-0 the last time we played them so I’m not looking past them at all.”
Brownsville was ready for the Lady Bearcats in their rematch.
Brown smoked a shot off a Bentworth defender and into the net less than two minutes into the match to give the hosts the lead for good.
Kovscek then made it 2-0 just over a minute later when she buried a pass from Brown.
“Addy gave her a nice through ball and Gloria finished,” Rohland said.
“The girls came ready to play. This was the best start they’ve had probably all season. Those two early goals set the tone.”
Bentworth wouldn’t go quietly though. Bella Moyer’s shot deflected off a Brownsville player and rolled into the net later in the first half to make it 2-1.
“The first 20 minutes of the first half was all us,” Rohland said. “Then things kind of settled towards the end of the first half. It was pretty even for probably the last 15 minutes and that’s when they got their goal.”
Brownsville regrouped at halftime and kept the pressure on in the second half.
“After halftime we kind of settled in an finished off the game pretty well,” Rohland said.
Still, the lead was just one until Kovscek changed that with about 25 minutes left, blasting in a free kick from 25 yards out to make it 3-1.
“That was big,” Rohland said. “As soon as we got that two-goal lead with about 25 minutes left, I had my midfielders play defensive and just lock down the rest of the game.”
Rohland let his players know he was much more satisfied with their performance in the rematch with Bentworth.
“I told them they left everything on the field this time,” Rohland said. “They gave it everything they’ve got and benefitted from that.”