Leading up to the season opener for the Bridgeport High School girls soccer team, there was a thought that Braelynne Sandreth might not be healthy enough to play.

 

The senior forward/midfielder had suffered a strained MCL in the offseason and there didn’t seem a need to rush her back into action as she’s the type of player perhaps even more important to have in the lineup at the end of the season when the games matter a little more.

 

Turns out, it’s tough keeping Sandreth off the field.

 

“The coronavirus going on, it’s my senior season and I want to play,” Sandreth said. “I spent a lot of time working to get stronger before the first game and it ended up working out. I strained my MCL, it hurt but it wasn’t like it was a complete tear.”

 

Sandreth took the field in that opener against Fairmont Senior and if it wasn’t for the brace on her right knee nobody would have known any difference. She hit the ground running that night with two goals in a 7-0 victory.

 

She nor her teammates have looked back as they are currently ranked No. 2 in Class AAA, undefeated at 9-0 and they have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 52-1. The most recent victory being a 1-0 win on the road at longtime Class AAA powerhouse Parkersburg on Saturday.

 

Sandreth leads the Indians in goals scored with 15. She has had five games already this season with more than one goal, including a pair of hat tricks.

 

But here is one of the many reasons why BHS has been so dominant this year — Sandreth doesn’t necessarily have to be the one to find the back of the net for the Indians to be successful. Eleven other players have at least one goal.

 

“Our whole team can score,” Sandreth said. “Our defenders can score. Our defenders come up and play forwards. We have a lot of smart soccer players from playing club soccer throughout the years, playing with a lot of good players. A lot of us can kind of read the field and know where to go and where everybody else is going at certain times. It’s not just the starters, the younger players are getting a chance to play and showing what they can do.”

 

First-year BHS girls coach Sam McKinney although impressed with Sandreth’s ability to score, doesn’t even think that’s the most important thing she brings to the table.

 

Braelynne is a competitor,” McKinney said. “That’s probably her greatest attribute. She is just a straight up competitor who will do whatever it takes to win. Braelynne will beat you at tiddlywinks if you want to try her.

 

“She has the benefit of having the team around her. She’s the focal point and she has a lot of good players getting her the ball and she does a good job of putting it home. They say it’s having a nose for the ball and she’s got it.

 

“It may look unorthodox sometimes, but I’ve seen it happen enough that it’s not unorthodox. It’s the way she plays and she always finds the net.”

 

In a game earlier this year, Sandreth finished off a hat trick against Robert C. Byrd with a goal that would be best described as an accidental bicycle kick. She had a goal against North Marion recently, where she used a header off a corner kick, that didn’t have enough force behind as she probably would have liked but it still trickled in past the goalkeeper.

 

“There are some lucky ones I’ve gotten away with, but I will take them,” Sandreth said. “I love scoring headers, that’s where I try to get the most.”

 

Scoring isn’t anything new for her on the soccer field. She had 16 goals in the 2017 season as a freshman. She topped that as a sophomore with 17. Last season, in which the Indians made the Class AA-A semifinals and Sandreth earned honorable mention all-state honors, she had 13 goals. With her 15 already this season she has 61 career goals to go along with 21 assists.

 

Still, at the end of the day, Sandreth doesn’t care who the one scoring the goals is as long as the team is winning with the primary goal to be the last team standing.

 

“It’s so fun playing on this team,” Sandreth said. “We have some much talent on this team this year it would be a shame not to win it all.”

 

Editor's Note: All photos of Braelynne Sandreth by www.benqueenphotography.com