The Brookings-Harbor Bruins boys soccer team met with an improved North Bend Bulldog squad on Monday in North Bend.

“I think that they did get better,” Head Coach Pancho Garcia said of the Bulldogs. “But, we improved beyond their level. Their coach put a good strategy on us and we failed to capitalize.”

The good strategy employed by North Bend coach Tom Zomerschoe was to pull midfielders into defensive positions to quell what he called “the fast, physical players” that the Bruins have up front – particularly  senior captain Thomas Spratt – and hold on for a tie with the sixth-ranked Bruins.

“I didn’t feel any added pressure,” Spratt said. “There were more people, but it didn’t affect how I played at all. We should have won.”

The Bruins outshot the Bulldogs 20-8 but couldn’t quite get the ball to go in the net.

“We put the ball over the goal, to the left of the goal, to the right of the goal and to the goalie but not in the goal,” Garcia said. “The kids worked hard, had plenty of intensity, but the ball would not go in.”

Spratt gave some of the blame for missed shots to the artificial surface on the Bulldogs field. 

“It’s not an excuse, but we really have trouble judging our kicks on North Bend’s astroturf,” Spratt said. “We only play on this surface once a year and it is just different enough to throw off our accuracy.”

Of the eight shots on goal by the Bulldogs, Bruins’ goalkeeper Chandler Gotfried handled them all. 

“Four or five of the shots were tough, hard shots on goal,” Garcia said. “Chandler did a great job out there with the saves.”

Starting varsity for the first time this season, sophomore Nells Johnson and senior John Joyce put up some strong minutes for the Bruin defense. Joyce is a transfer student from Hawaii by way of Ashland, and is one of a trio of siblings who are now playing soccer for the Bruins.

The Bruins host the Douglas Trojans at 4:30 p.m., today (Oct. 12), on the soccer field between the high school and the stadium.