BRADFORD, Pa. – Warren’s boys soccer team knew it would have a battle on its hands when the Dragons traveled to Bradford Wednesday.

Through seven games, the Owls had outscored their opponents 45-4. Undaunted, the Dragons came in looking to gain some ground in the Region 5 standings.

It wasn’t to be, however, as Bradford held strong to their homefield and came away with a 2-0 win.

“It was another close game,” Warren coach Denny Flatt said. “It was two good teams going at it.”

Bradford (6-2 overall, 3-0 Region 5) picked up both goals late in the first half. At 29:06, Ian Grady made a move around the Dragons defense and put the ball in for a 1-0 lead.

“They had too many touches in the box and we didn’t close out their runs,” Flatt said.

With just over two minutes to play in the half, Cadyn Sutherland got behind the defense and put in the Owls insurance goal.

“We made two mistakes that cost us,” Flatt said. “When you play a quality team like that, if you make mistakes they’re going to make you pay. When you give a quality player that many touches in the box, he’s probably going to put it in.”

The Dragons (3-3-1, 1-1-1) put at least a dozen shots on net, but Bradford keeper Evan Schmidt turned everything away.

“He did a nice job for them,” Flatt said. “We had some opportunities, we were real close to the uprights, but they didn’t go in.”

Warren’s Tommy Harrington was stellar in net in his own right. The senior netminder stopped 15 Bradford shots and limited a team averaging more than six goals per game to just two scores.

“Tommy Harrington had a really good game,” Flatt said. “He made some really nice saves when they could’ve put the game out of reach.

“That’s a pretty potent offense,” he continued. “We knew Bradford had scored a lot going in, but we knew it wouldn’t be a lot against us.”

Warren is in the midst of the busiest part of its schedule, but the match with the Owls concluded the toughest part of this stretch. In the last four days, the Dragons have squared off against General McLane, Slippery Rock and Bradford. The Rockets and Owls are directly ahead of the Dragons in the Region 5 standings.

“It’s basically three teams battling it out (for the region),” Flatt said.

The Dragons are off until Saturday when they host Corry for Youth Wellness Day at War Memorial Field.

“We’re going to work on some things and hopefully start putting more balls in the net,” Flatt said. “You have to score to win and we have to learn to score against the better teams.”

JV: WARREN 0, BRADFORD 0

The Owls and Dragons were unable to find the back of the net during the junior varsity contest and played to a 0-0 draw.

Alex Ferry and Alex Nebinski combined for the shutout in net for Warren.