Whenever Bradford and DuBois meet in boys soccer, the stakes tend to be sky-high.

The Beavers have eliminated the Owls from the past two District 9 AAA playoffs (last year in a title game penalty shootout and in the 2016 semifinals). So it wasn’t a surprise to see another hard-fought game even if this one came on a warm, early September evening rather than a cold, late October night.

Bradford fell in its home opener 2-1 to DuBois on Tuesday to drop to 1-1 early in the season.

The Beavers scored both of their goals in the final four minutes of the first half to force Bradford to play catch up the rest of the game. And while the Owls played much better in the second half, including scoring their lone goal in the early minutes, they simply couldn’t find that elusive tying marker.

“If we had come out and played the first 40 minutes like we played those second 40 minutes, I think it’s a potentially different result,” Bradford coach Wes Lohrman said. “We put a total of 12 shots on the goal, and the majority of those did come in that second half.”

The play in the first half was very even, with both sides coming up with some good chances on offense and both goalkeepers making several nice saves.

Bradford’s Evan Schmidt (eight saves in the game) made a few particularly good stops to keep the Owls in the game when it seemed like the Beavers might be ready to break through.

It looked like the first half would end scoreless, but DuBois was able to find the back of the net not once but twice in the waning minutes.

Nico McDonald opened the game’s scoring on a defensive breakdown by the Owls with about four minutes to go in the half.

“It came off of a turnover in the middle,” Lohrman explained. “We were possessing the ball, but we were possessing the ball too deep in our defensive third. We want to be a little bit further forward doing that, but we made a mistake and we paid for it.”

Then, with less than 30 seconds remaining, a Bradford hand ball in the box gave DuBois a penalty kick, which Nick Graeca clinically put past Schmidt to give the Beavers a two-goal halftime advantage.

But rather than acting shellshocked after giving up two late goals, the Owls instead came out with a vengeance in the second half, dominating possession and keeping the ball in DuBois’ end for long stretches of time.

“Our possession got better; we made some adjustments,” Lohrman said of the team’s approach in the second half. “We moved some players around from how we started, and those players were able to get us forward and get us some chances at the other end.”

It didn’t take long for Bradford to capitalize. Junior Ryan Miller took a nice feed from Ian Grady down the right hand side and let loose a shot from a tough angle that found its way under the crossbar and into the Beavers’ net.

“Ryan has unbelievable stamina and he has the capability of running up and down a wing,” Lohrman said. “He was able to get in behind their outside back. He was able to turn the corner on him and he was able to put a shot underneath the bar.”

The entire game had a playoff-like atmosphere, but the second half in particular saw a lot of physical play between the two sides. The referees seemed content to let the players play, with only a few fouls called when there arguably could have been many more.

Bradford kept up the pressure until the final whistle, but despite a few nice looks at the net weren’t able to capitalize like they had earlier in the game.

Playing such a fiercely competitive game early in the season is something Lohrman sees as an opportunity for his team to take and propel themselves forward as the season moves along.

“A loss like this is going to leave a really bad feeling,” he said, “but you can use it to either motivate you moving forward and play hard, and to bottle it up and use it positively, or you can say, ‘We’re going to do this or that and kind of take you out of your game plan.’

“My message to the guys is to take this, to hold on to it, to use it as motivation to drive us forward so that we play the first 40 minutes like that second 40 minutes.”

The Owls will be back in action on Friday when they head to the Elk County Tournament to take on Ridgway.