Braelynne Sandreth became Bridgeport's all-time leading goal scorer as she found the back of the net five times in Monday's 12-0 victory against Preston in a Class AAA Regioin I, Section 2 semifinal game at Wayne Jamison Field.

 

Sandreth had a four goals in the first half as the Class AAA Indians built a commanding 8-0 lead. Her fifth of the game, and the 66th of heer career which set the new record made it 9-0 in the second half. The previous record of 65 was held by Amanda Saymon. 

 

With the win the Indians improve to 12-0 and will face Buckhannon-Upshur  for the sectional title on Wednesday. That game will also be at Wayne Jamison Field with a start time at 6 p.m.

 

"I didn't think I would get it this year because of COVID," Sandreth said. "Then we had three weeks off (two because of Harrison County being orange on the WVDE map, one because Upshur County was orange and the sectionals were pushed back) but tonight when I scored four, I thought, 'Oh my God, I just need one more,' so I asked my teammates to help me a little bit and my midfielders passed the ball really good today.

 

"And without my teammates from the previous years and my teammates this year, I wouldn't have been able to haven gotten it."

 

The Indians may have had a tiny bit of rust in the opening minutes against the Knights, but once Sandreth scored off an assist from Ally Bender in the 13th minute, they were off and running and it was clear that even a global pandemic eventually runs out of options in defending this team. 

 

Sandreth quickly added another goal. Charli Grafton then made it 3-0 off a pass from Emerson Grafton on her first of four first-half assists. 

 

A hat trick was notched by Sandreth with 20:50 still remaining in the first half. Her fourth goal made it 5-0. The Grafton sisters scored the remaining three goals of the first half and the Tribe was well on its way to its 10th shutout in 12 games.

 

"We knew there would be some rust, we didn't know how long it would take to knock that rust off, apparently it took about 15 minutes," BHS coach Sam McKinney said. "They've been itching to play somebody else than themselves for a while. They were much better than I thought they would be after that long of a layoff. But the've been working hard. They were excited to be back out here and competing."

 

Sandreth's record-setting goal was the first for the Indians in the second half, making it 9-0. Kaylee Reed, Anna Hutchinson and Emma Jones accounted for the three remaining goals. The final one by Jones came on a penalty kick.

 

On the season, the BHS girls have now outscored their opponents by a combined score of 70-2.

 

Editor's Note: Photo of Braelynne Sandreth by Joey Signorelli for www.benqueenphotography.com