By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – When the life of the party went down, sucking all the vitality from the field and out of his concerned teammates, Bedford North Lawrence had to find an alternative energy source. The Stars found it from unexpected fountains of youth.
Sophomore forward Scotty Tipton scored his first varsity goal, and sophomore Parker Beeson filled a huge void as an emergency goalie, rescuing the wobbly Stars during a 1-0 victory over Edgewood (3-4-1) on Monday afternoon.
BNL (5-4-1 with three consecutive wins) had the wind knocked out of its entire roster when starting goalie Daniel Loudin-Magnuson went down with a hip injury midway through the first half. Rather than gasp, the Stars regrouped and finally broke through for the Tipton goal with 10:44 left.
Loudin-Magnuson required assistance to reach the bench (and later to get a positive response for a homecoming date, so the injury wasn’t life threatening), and the Stars needed a spark.
“The whole morale changed,” BNL coach Ryan Otis said. “The energy just got zapped out of us. Dan is one of the fun guys on the team, he brings a lot of energy, so when we saw him helped off the field, that had a big impact on morale.
“We just had to calm down, play our game. It took a while, but we finally got the one.”
BNL had generated a lot of scoring chances during the first 70 minutes, evident by the 18-6 advantage in shots. Edgewood goalie Roman Wagner kept the Stars frustrated and empty until a late surge finally paid dividends.
Junior forward Adriano Sullivan waded through traffic in front of the net, and fired a shot that Wagner deflected with both hands but could not contain. With the rebound loose, Tipton was in the perfect place to smack home the rebound.
“Easy tap-in,” Tipton said. “I just got a wide-open goal.”
“That was hustle,” Otis said. “In the first half, once Dan went down, they were outhustling us to 50-50 balls. That goal was all work, a good shot and following it up.”
Loudin-Magnuson’s injury, which could keep him out of extended action, just added to BNL’s woes. The Stars have already lost senior Isaiah Conner for the season, defender Frank Decker has been absent, and BNL had to count on senior Jayden Duke on defense when freshman Raiden Todd was sidelined in the second half.
“We’re the walking wounded right now,” Otis said. “It’s getting bad. We were already a little thin. Now we’re a lot thin.
“I’m proud of how Parker came in. He’s been the emergency goalie, and he stepped up. We might need him to keeping stepping up.”
The Stars will host Jeffersonville on Saturday.
