The Lordstown boys team did some additional tuning during the break and broke a halftime tie to leave LaBrae with a 5-2 win.

“We played great,” first-year Red Devils coach Bruce Pyles said. “We talked about some things at half, and we really improved, and it showed.”

Junior Josh Wood got the Vikings on the board quickly, scoring 8 minutes into the game.

Midway through the half, senior Jack Paisley beat LaBrae goalkeeper Max Wilson, knotting the game up at one. Paisley then gave the Red Devils the lead, scoring again 10 minutes after.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger
Lordstown senior Vince Spano and senior Matt Biery of LaBrae battle for possession of the ball.

In the waning seconds of the first half, Wood beat once Wilson again to re-tie the game with 53 seconds remaining.

At the break, Pyles made some small changes and reminded his team to play ‘their game.’

“Tactically we changed some stuff up and really, we just played our game,” Pyles said.

The game was tied at 2 for a majority of the second half, with multiple chances being exchanged between the teams.

The tiebreaker came off a Lordstown rush, but it wasn’t scored by Lordstown. A LaBrae defender recovered the ball, and in an attempt to pass it back to his goalkeeper, accidentally put it in the net to give the Red Devils a 3-2 lead with 15 minutes remaining in the game.

That goal gave Lordstown a new level of confidence.

“It seemed like our whole mindset changed,” Pyles said.

Now trailing, the Vikings lost some focus.

LaBrae coach Isaiah Carmichael wants his team to be more composed and to work on closing out games.

“I honestly thought we played really well up until that third goal that kind of shut us down with it being an own goal, but overall I thought we played decent,” Carmichael said. “We’ve just got to be more uplifting with each other, especially in an unfortunate scenario like on that third goal, but other than that, we played good at the start, we’ve just got to learn to finish.”

The Red Devils capitalized on the momentum with two additional goals. Paisley capped off a hat-trick performance and Matt Eakins got on the board with 18 seconds remaining in the game.

The win moves Lordstown to 6-8-1 on the year, and Pyles thinks the team is hitting its stride at just the right time.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” he said. “I think we’re starting to peak right at the end. We hope this win gets us a better seed and hopefully helps us out in the tournament.”

While mentioning the on-field stuff that needs work, Carmichael made sure to mention that the off-field side of things needs to be refreshed as well. With both of those where they need to be, he thinks the team will be in good shape.

“Really, we’ve just got to regroup,” Carmichael said. “We’ve got to stay positive with each other and build that bond a little bit more and then everything else will come with it.”

Up next, both teams face the same opponent. The Vikings have the rest of the week off and resume their schedule on Monday against rival Newton Falls, and Lordstown closes their regular season against the Tigers on Thursday.

Carmichael is looking forward to the matchup.

“They’re a good team,” Carmichael said. “We beat them by one last time, but they played hard until the last minute, so it’s going to be a battle.”