High school boys soccer: Dylan Bruce scores twice as Fremont takes down Syracuse in overtime

Heading into Friday’s showdown between Fremont (6-4, 4-2 Region 1) and Syracuse (6-4, 3-3 Region 1), fans, players and coaches knew it was going to be a great game.

And it certainly was.

After ending the second half tied at 1-1, both teams — who came in tied for second place in Region 1 — took a rest before coming back out on the field for overtime.

Then, less than 20 seconds after taking the opening kick, Fremont gave the home fans plenty to cheer about as Dylan Bruce took a pass from Logan Peterson and blasted off a shot that hit nothing but the back of the net to give the Wolves a thrilling 2-1 victory.

“You dream about those moments,” Bruce said. “When Logan passed me the ball, I didn’t see anyone in front of me so I just struck the ball as hard as I could and fortunately it went in.”

As soon as he scored, Bruce was quickly surrounded by his teammates who piled on in celebration.

“It was a great feeling,” he added. “In the end, I was just glad we won.”

“What an absolute rocket that was,” Fremont head coach Darren Erwin said with a big smile after the game. “I’m not sure anyone could have stopped that kick.”

While Erwin was grateful for the win, he noted he could go without the overtime drama that his team has had this year.

“I’m too old for this,” he said jokingly. “This is our third overtime this year and the second overtime where we’ve scored in less than 30 seconds. I’m not sure what the secret is going into overtime, but it would be nice if we did that during the first 80 minutes of the games.”

Fremont got off to a quick start as Bruce scored the opening goal just six minutes into the match. After a long throw in, the ball bounced around before ending up at the feet of the junior. After settling the ball, Bruce quickly got it off, and it found the corner to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.

Despite getting down early, Syracuse fought hard and tied the game in the 46th minute as Boston Cheney provided a perfect pass near the front of the goal for Brody Cardon to tap it into the net.

Both sides had plenty of great opportunities to score in the second half as the intensity picked up. Fremont’s Kason Kotter gave the Wolves two great scoring chances as the senior had two perfect passes into the box, but Payton Clark and Cam Graves weren’t able to score off their headers.

“I was talking with (Syracuse) coach (Josh) Kealamakia afterwards and we talked about how good and how deep Region 1 is this year,” Erwin said. “Every game goes down to the wire and today was no exception.”

After falling 3-1 to rival Weber earlier in the week, Fremont bounced back with an important win to keep its region title hopes alive. With the win, Fremont moved into sole possession of second place and is just one game back of first-place Farmington.

With the loss, Syracuse falls into a tie with Weber for third place. Both teams will go head-to-head next Wednesday as the Titans look to regroup after back-to-back losses.