Fulton County Ohio Media

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The Swanton Bulldogs dropped a hard-fought 4-2 decision to the reigning NWOAL Boys Soccer Champion Bryan Golden Bears on Wednesday evening at Defiance High School in the OHSSA Division IV District Semi-Finals.  On the strength of an early goal (37:12) by Eli Bolyard and outstanding goal tending by Landon Hendricks, the Bulldogs held a somewhat fragile 1-0 lead at halftime.

However, it did not take long for the Bears to capitalize on their relentless offensive pressure to start the second half.  Just 22 seconds in (39:38), Quinn Green found the back of the net for Bryan to tie the match at 1-1.  Swanton responded very quickly when Bryan was called for a foul within penalty area at the 38:05 mark.  Evan Reinhard took the penalty kick and drilled a shot past goalkeeper Masen Gineman into the left corner of the net, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 advantage.

Once again, the Golden Bears wasted no time to even the score, needing only 28 seconds for Green to score his second goal of the contest with 37:37 still showing on the clock.  Within the next 10 minutes, Carter Altaffer (30:59) and Carter Thiel (27:27) gave Bryan a 4-2 lead that Swanton was unable to overcome.  In the time remaining, the Bulldogs had two goals disallowed by the officials and the Bears had one as well.

With the victory, Bryan moves on to the District Finals on Saturday at 1:00 PM against the Sandusky Perkins Pirates at Bowling Green High School.

For Swanton, the season ends with a 14-3-2 record, the 14 wins breaking the school record of 12 in one season.  Also breaking school records were senior Brendan Upham with 30 assists for the year and junior Eli Bolyard with 44 goals on the season.

Click on the link to access photos from the match. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Swanton senior Evan Reinhard scores on a penalty kick to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead