Bridgeforth Scores 3 In Judges' Victory Over Colonels

Posted: April 28, 2016
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Handley High School had a chance to go into the long Apple Blossom weekend undefeated Wednesday afternoon as long as it took care of business against rival James Wood.

The Judges started the party early against the Colonels.

Handley scored twice within the first 10 minutes and rode a hat trick by Seth Bridgeforth to a 4-2 victory for its 12th consecutive triumph.

Jesus Rojo-Trejo scored in the second minute, and Bridgeforth netted his first just six minutes later to give the Judges plenty of momentum.

“You always want to start off getting goals quickly and we’ve done that in the past and it helps keep the energy going,” said Handley assistant coach Scott Bucey, acting as the head coach for Cosmo Balio, who has missed three of the last four games while dealing with the death of his brother. “I would have liked to see us press the issue in the first half to get the third and fourth [goals] quicker.”

The Judges took advantage of their star player’s skillset to move him around the field and produce more opportunities.

“He’s [Bridgeforth] is a handful for the defenders,” Bucey said. “He showed his versatility and got us two goals at forward then we played him a little out wide there and we got him into some space.”

Despite the Judges early tallies, there was a lull in Handley’s play. Twice Handley let the Colonels back within one goal.

The first goal was on a penalty kick in the 23rd minute that was netted by Aidan Houser and then again right before the half when Liam Ebert sailed a corner kick into the Handley goal.

Bridgeforth added his second goal of the night in the 34th minute in between the two James Wood goals.

“We gave a really good team a good game,” said James Wood coach Brian Sullivan. “Credit them, Seth [Bridgeforth] is the best player in our conference and he showed it today scoring three. Then with Jesus [Rojo-Trejo] — he is so good and they have so many role players that do a really good job for them. They took it to us in the first half and stuck with it in the second half.”

James Wood used its late first -half goal to come out with more sustained play in the second half.

The Colonels accumulated several scoring opportunities throughout the second half, but none were good enough to beat Handley keeper Haniel Lopez-Cajero.

“It was a composure check for us because we let in a couple of goals that I don’t think are normal for us,” Bucey said. “The penalty kick and then a miscommunication on the corner kick. I don’t think it was so much of a momentum switch as much it was how we rebound from some things that were uncharacteristic on our part. I think it’s good for us to go through some of these things and the composure checks.”

After a relatively even second half, the Judges finally found a way to break the game open.

Rojo-Trejo was looking to score his second goal of the game when his shot was saved by James Wood keeper Cole Morris. But before Morris collected the rebound, Bridgeforth darted in to knock it in to complete the hat trick in the 70th minute.

Although Bridgeforth was not pleased with his team’s overall effort, the Handley striker has his eyes on what it takes to keep the Judges’ season moving forward heading into the postseason tournaments.

“Honestly, I think it was kind of weak,” Bridgeforth said. “That is not how we usually play. I think we let the crowd get to us a bit. Our momentum was up and down. We were ready to go then it’d drop down and come back up.

“When it was 3-2, I knew we needed another goal to just push James Wood out of it.”