BOWLING GREEN – The Swanton and Delta high school soccer teams started to gear up for the upcoming season at the annual Bowling Green-Otsego Invitational Friday through Sunday.
The Swanton girls team played well, earning second place in Division II. They started off the invitational with a 4-0 group play victory over Miami East.
They followed that with a 5-1 win over Cory-Rawson for a 2-0 start. Midview got the best of the Bulldogs in the final game with a 3-0 victory.
Tournament play began for the Bulldogs with a convincing 5-2 victory over Napoleon. They then slipped past Genoa 1-0 to advance to the Division II championship game.
In the championship game, Swanton fell just short, as Eastwood pulled out a 2-1 victory.
The Delta girls, competing in Division I, placed third. In the group round the Lady Panthers opened with a 3-0 win over Oak Harbor.
They tied with St. Marys Memorial at 1-1, then went onto pick up a 1-0 win over Napoleon.
The Panthers lost their first match of tournament play, falling 1-0 against Woodmore. However, they responded with a 1-0 win over St. Marys Memorial and 2-0 victory against Lima Central Catholic.
The Swanton boys were 2-1 in group play. They started with a 3-0 win over Woodmore and followed that up with a 3-1 victory over Cory-Rawson.
In the final game of group play, the Bulldogs dropped a 3-0 decision to Cory-Rawson.
Swanton had a hard time finding the net in the tournament portion of the invitational. They dropped 1-0 decisions to Eastwood, Woodmore and Defiance.
The Delta boys struggled to score in the group round. They fell 5-0 to Clay I, 6-1 against Maumee, and 5-1 to Kalida. However, in the tournament portion, the Panthers responded from an early loss to Rossford to defeat both Lake and Otsego by the matching score of 5-0.
The Evergreen girls, who are still in the process of working up to a full varsity schedule, also competed at the invitational. They fell to Midview, Miami East and Cory-Rawson in group play.
In tournament play, they fell to Midview II and Rossford before topping Defiance II.