Bears boys soccer defeats Cannon Falls, Lourdes to lead HVL

The Byron boys soccer team had a good week beating Cannon Falls 4-2 on Monday and Lourdes 2-0 on Thursday in Hiawatha Valley League action. 
The wins leave the Bears in first place in the HVL with a 3-0 record. Byron hosted Cannon Falls on Monday. August 31, in a game that became closer than it should have. Byron maintained possession of the ball for much of the game and scored 10 minutes in when Sam Pompeii took a Bradley Pavon feed and placed it in the left corner. 
Cannon Falls answered back in the 17th minute on a blast by Michael Fimmen from 40 yards out that bounced off GK Caleb Koza’s hands and into the goal.  They added another goal 6 minutes later when the Bear fullbacks had trouble clearing a ball from the goalbox. The half ended with a Cannon Falls lead 2-1. 
Byron came out firing on all cylinders after halftime and scored two goals in the first 90 seconds. The first was by Liam Schick on a feed from fullback Ethan Klein and the second by Bradley Pavon assisted by Sam Pompeii. Captain Cam Schmit closed out the scoring with 15 minutes remaining with a rocket from zone 14 into the left corner of the net. Pavon assisted on that goal also, giving him a goal and two assists on the night.
Next up was Lourdes on Thursday night. Lourdes has had an incredible streak in the HVL over the past 20 years having never lost a HVL game and winning the HVL title each year until last season when Byron handed them their first HVL loss and also gave Byron their first HVL Conference Championship. 
In much the same manner, this years’ version of the Bears also beat Lourdes by a 2-0 margin giving them only their second HVL loss over those many years. 
In a very windy night, the Bears came out possessing the ball in an incredible display of communication between players and patience probing for holes in the Lourdes Defense. At the 15 minute mark, winger Bradley Pavon was taken down inside the penalty box and awarded a penalty kick. Pavon converted it for a 1-0 lead. 
Lourdes has a very good goalkeeper that managed to hold Byron from adding to the lead despite seeing 14 shots. Finally at the 75th minute, Pavon was dribbling into the goalbox when the GK Jaxon Hopkins came out to win the ball along with a Lourdes fullback and all three collided and were knocked down. Pavon jumped up first and calmly buried the loose ball for the 2-0 lead that held up.
Byron Coach Dave Bahr was very happy with  the defensive efforts of the back line tandem of Wesley Felten, Holden Koza, Ethan Klein and Ryan Boyken as well as holding midfielders Lukas Thompson and Zach Ellavsky. They, along with GK Caleb Koza have allowed only 2 goals in three games with two shutouts.
This week the Bears were set to take on Kasson/Mantorville Tuesday and Lake City Thursday.