Outshooting the Purple Pounders 27-1, the Bears posted a 7-0 victory that had coach Tucker Blackman singing the praises of his entire squad.
“Obviously we played well offensively, getting off 27 shots, but our defense really shut them down and kept the ball on Central’s end of the field,” he praised. “I’m very proud of the way we played. We have some good senior leadership that includes six guys who have been playing together for a long time.”
Senior Miles Christian continued his assault on the school’s scoring record, netting four goals in the opener to bring his career mark to 45.
Logan Fetzner added a pair of goals to the winning total, while senior Martin Zaragoza handed out a pair of assists and booted the other Bear goal. Freshman Toribo Navarro also dished off an assist.
“While our offense played great, I really think our defense deserves a lot of credit as well,” coach Blackman proclaimed. “We only allowed them (Central) one shot and it was a weak shot at that.”
“Anthony Moniz, Caleb Arrowood and Cody Reynolds are our senior leaders on the defense and they did a great job. Our defense is the backbone of our team and this is the best they’ve looked this spring.
“I feel like we’re twice as good as we were last year when we only lost four matches,” declared Blackman, who is coming off a 7-4-3 record in 2011. “I feel confident about this group and have really high hopes, but I know we are in a very competitive district.
“I think we can compete with Cleveland, McMinn (County), Ooltewah and Soddy(-Daisy) in the top of the district, but it will all come down to execution,” he assessed. “We’ll get a lot of shots from our opponents, but I like the way we play together as a team.”
Bradley will take the pitch again on Thursday with a trip to Madisonville to face Sequoyah. “They should be a good test for us to see where we are,” coach Blackman related. “Last year we had a 6-6 tie with them.”
