Warriors win see-saw battle in overtime

BAXTER - Every time the Brainerd Warriors scored the Little Falls Flyers reciprocated.

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Scoring in Tuesday's Central Lakes Conference game followed that pattern in regulation, which ended in a 2-2 stalemate, and in the first five minutes of overtime, which ended 3-3.

In the last five overtime minutes, goals by the Warriors' Tylor Bouchard and Jake Williams enabled Brainerd to emerge with an entertaining 5-3 victory at Southdale Field.

"It seemed like we'd let down and when they would score it was let's put the intensity back in," Warriors coach Cahil Collins said. "Then we'd score, then we'd let down, then they would score and the intensity level would come up again.

Joe Nelson of the Brainerd Warriors leapt for the ball Tuesday during a soccer game against the Little Falls Flyers. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.

"We need to mentally prepare so we can play with that kind of intensity from the get-go."

Bouchard tallied at the 85:16 mark. Williams followed with 47 seconds remaining to ice the victory for the Warriors.

"I just got a good ball from one of my teammates," Bouchard said. "I just got through there luckily and I got it. (Flyers keeper Dan Kornbaum) basically just stood there and it went right past him and the pole."

Fellow sophomore Wesley Delong also scored for the Warriors with a header 2:07 into overtime.

"This actually is Wesley's first game," Collins said. "He wasn't able to play the first four games so he's really quite excited, in his first game, scoring a goal."

Sophomore Grant Bell had a hat trick for the Flyers. After Jordan Posch tallied for Brainerd in the first half Bell scored for the first time.

Joe Nelson put Brainerd up 2-1 with 8:34 remaining in the second half but Bell scored on a penalty kick with 2:31 left in regulation.

After Delong gave Brainerd a 3-2 edge, Bell boomed a long shot off the right post and into the cage.

"He had help from his teammates," Flyers coach Julie Bell said of Grant Bell. "He had a perfect cross from Scott Ziegler on that corner kick, and maybe Ziegler again on the one that he volley kicked. You get a quick touch like that and it's hard for a keeper to react."

Warriors 5, Flyers 3 OT

The key: Brainerd's Tyler Bouchard and Jake Williams scored in the last five overtime minutes.

Conference: Brd 3-1-0, LF 0-5-0

Overall: Brd 3-2-0, LF 1-7-0

Next: Sartell vs. Brainerd at Baxter 5 p.m. Thursday.

Brainerd showered the 6-foot-8 Kornbaum with 20 shots while its defense limited the Flyers to eight shots on Matt Sather.

"He's got long arms," Julie Bell said of Kornbaum. "Obviously, he can get to the high ones. Sometimes he's so big he can't quite get the low ones, but he does a nice job for us."

Collins thought the Warriors "came out kind of flat" despite being hobbled by injuries.

"We haven't really played with our whole team," he said. "We've got some people (injured). Chris Nathan got the OK to start practicing again today so he might see some time on Thursday, depending on how he looks in practice (Wednesday), so the team is starting to get encouraged about that."

Little Falls 1 1 1 - 3

Brainerd 1 1 3 - 5

First half: Brd-Jordan Posch (Jake Williams) 7:20; LF-Grant Bell, 15:13

Second half: Brd-Joe Nelson (Posch) 71:26; LF-Bell, 77:29

Overtime: Brd-Wesley Delong (Tylor Bouchard), 82:07; LF-Bell, 84:24; Brd-Bouchard, 85:16; Brd-Williams, 89:13

Shots on goal: LF 4-3-1-8, Brd 9-5-6-20

Goalkeepers: LF-Dan Kornbaum (15 saves), Brd-Matt Sather (5 saves)

MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.