By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVERTON, Ore.– Silverton had to bring their A-game, their best-of-the-best against Corvallis Tuesday night to close out the regular season.
The Spartans entered the Mid-Willamette Conference finale and haven’t dropped a MWC contest since October 24, 2019. And with the Foxes bringing the house Tuesday, intensity, aggression and all, Silverton made Corvallis work for their 3-1 victory.
“We put heart out there. The result, 3-1, it could’ve been a tie. I felt like we ended on a good note. Corvallis is such an amazing team,” said Jason Leon. “Being out there and competing like that, competing with all the teams in our conference, it’s awesome.”
The Sparts got a mid-game goal against Silverton to hold a narrow 1-0 lead on the Foxes. Silverton entered the game 7-1-5 on the year andac were looking to pull even with Corvallis going into the second half.
Their moment came when Ezra Bradford was fouled inside the box, setting up a penalty kick opportunity in the 51st minute. The junior connected to tie the game up at one.
“It was huge. It was the biggest goal of my high school career,” smiled Bradford. “Normally I don’t take PK’s, but I felt like I had to take the PK and I made it.”
Silverton held the Sparts to their first-half goal leading up to Bradford’s goal and for the following nine minutes, but fatigue began to settle in. Corvallis broke the tie in the 60th, the Foxes tried to answer. Silverton couldn’t find that next equalizer however as the Spartans added a third goal late as an insurance goal in the victory Tuesday.
“We pushed ourselves to the limits, those last five, seven minutes were really rough,” Bradford said. “We gassed out but we pushed it to the limits.”
Silverton finishes the regular season 7-2-5 overall and 4-2-3 in MWC play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
JMcDonaldMedia 