Byron, Lourdes end regular season with draw

Byron and Lourdes battled to a 1-1 draw to close out the regular season in boys futball last Thursday night.
Byron entered the game missing four players including three key starters due to injury and precaution. The Byron back four had only one regular starter on it and two new faces playing extended time for the first time on varsity.
Lourdes had one of their key players get injured in the warm up and another go down late in the game so both teams were down players but that did not cool the intensity of the match. In the first 15 minutes, Lourdes clearly had the upper hand as they put intense pressure on Byron GK Caleb Koza who had 9 saves on the night. Byron, knowing their roster would
be different from usual, had worked on a second team of attackers all week and turned them loose in the 16th minute and the entire look of the team changed as well.
The new attack team was driving and pressuring and win- ning balls and forced Lourdes back on their heels. The first team came back on with 12 minutes to play in the half and continued the higher pace set

up earlier and the battle raged. With 4 minutes left in the half, talented Lourdes Junior Trent Neff played a ball through to Joey Lonzo who put it away for the 1-0 lead.
In the second half the intensity resumed with both teams going toe to toe with an intense desire to win the game. Finally, 6 minutes into the half, Garett Johnson was able to convert a pass from AJ Bishop past talented Lourdes GK Jaxon Hopkins for the equalizer.
Both teams gave everything they had the rest of the way but could not get past the stellar play of each teams goalkeepers.
Byron Coach Dave Bahr was especially complimentary of Connor Krogstad and Ayden Tye for doing such a brilliant job of filling in the back line and Alex Johnson, Noah Schrooten and Talen Henderson for their role in making the midfield so effective.
Byron ends the regular season 9-1-1 as HVL Champions and the number 3 seed in the Section Tournament which started Tuesday with Byron hosting Schaeffer Academy. Lourdes goes to 6-2-3 and is seeded 5th and hosted Caledonia, also on Tuesday.