By Jacob Govero
Branson, Mo. — As the clouds gave way to some afternoon sunshine the Bolivar Lady Liberators traveled south to Branson to face off against a rising team in girls’ high school soccer.
Locked into a defensive battle for most of the game, Bolivar finally broke through on a goal by leading scorer Brionna Halverson. A second goal by Halverson a few minutes later put the game out of reach as Bolivar grabbed an early season road victory by defeating Branson 2-0.
The first goal of the game came on a nice give-and-go between Halverson and longtime friend and teammate, Grace Vanhoornbeek. The all-state Saint Louis University-bound Halverson gave credit to her teammate on the play.
“We’ve been playing together ever since we were little,” Halverson said. “We kind of have a system going. She gave a great ball and it wound up on my foot, I saw it and I said, ‘I’m gonna take it.’”
That goal was at the 34:45 mark of the second half as the first half was ruled by defense.
Branson Head Coach Brandon Scott, in his fourth season for the Lady Pirates, was proud of how his team came out against a very tough Bolivar team.
“They’re a very experienced team,” Scott said. “I thought our defense played very well. We had Halverson frustrated in the half, taking her step for step, the things our defense can do is just phenomenal.”
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Less than ten minutes later at the 26:59 mark of the second half, Halverson would net her second goal of the game off assists from junior Ally Hargis and Vanhoornbeek. That was Halverson’s seventh goal of the season, making the score 2-0 and giving Bolivar all it would need to seal the victory.
Bolivar head coach Steve Fast was very complimentary of Branson’s effort on defense forcing him to make some adjustments.
“They did a great job of containing our weapons, making us pass back,” Fast said. “At halftime we talked about some things we needed to do to open the game up and spread out the field. We were able to get that first goal in and just gained momentum from there.”
With 11 days off since their last game, Bolivar was ready to get going as they improved to 3-0 overall on the season. Their next game will be this coming Monday against Willard, a team they split wins with last season. Fast says it will be a tough game against a district opponent.
“Last year we lost the first game on penalty kicks and won the second 3-0. This year they’re off to a good start and we’re off to a good start so it should be a great match.”
Branson fell to 5-2 on the season and faces that same Willard team on Tuesday for their next game. Scott thinks his team is ready for the test.
“Two years in a row we’ve gone to overtime with Willard, they bring back their defense but graduated some offense, so hopefully we’ll get the edge this time.”
