Joe Imel/Daily News Bowling Green’s John Simpson (center) scores one of his two goals on a header Wednesday at Bowling Green High School. Click here to see more photos from the Purples' victory Wednesday over Apollo.

advertisement

The Bowling Green Purples have a lot of new faces this season, but the opening result looked awfully familiar.

Led by two goals from senior midfielder Jon Simpson, the Purples scratched out a 3-1 victory Wednesday over Apollo at the Bowling Green Soccer Complex.

Still, while hardly downplaying the victory, the Purples (1-0) left the field knowing they must improve in order to reach the level of last season’s state semifinalist squad and to justify its No. 3 preseason ranking in the state coaches’ poll.

“It was all right,” Simpson said. “We’ve still got a lot of things we need to work on as a team. We’re satisfied with the win, we just need to work on some things and get prepared for the season. ... We can’t go through the season playing like that.”

Bowling Green coach Craig Widener figured the issues simply stemmed from first-game anxiety. While BG dresses about a dozen seniors, many saw limited playing time last season behind a strong senior class.

“We’ve got to calm down and play within ourselves,” Widener said. “Any time you start a season, especially when you have as many people that aren’t used to the amount of playing time that we have right now, they have a tendency to come out all amped up. We’ve just got to settle down.”

Bowling Green took a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute when senior forward Omar Anaya popped a shot into the left corner of the Apollo net.

The Eagles (0-2) answered in the 23rd minute when Apollo’s Zach Crabtree scored on a point-blank runner to make it 1-1.

Click here to see photos from the Purples' victory Wednesday over Apollo.

Bowling Green took the lead for good on Simpson’s header in the 33rd minute, giving the Purples a 2-1 cushion that held until Simpson scored again on a breakaway in the 78th minute.

“My teammate (senior) Scott Hiles played a perfect ball in, set me up perfect - he kind of put it right there on a plate for me,” Simpson said. “(On the second goal), I saw where their defense wasn’t set up properly, and my teammate Luis ... played a perfect ball again. My two teammates just happened to be there for me.”

Widener said Simpson deserves credit as well.

“He’s working,” Widener said. “He’s just putting himself in the right position to finish the easy ones.”

With injuries hobbling or eliminating the effectiveness of four Apollo starters, first-year Eagles coach Josh Jackson seemed fine with his team’s performance.

“If we have them, I think it’s a much different story,” Jackson said. “For us to play virtually 2-1 ... for now, beginning of the season, I’m pleased to be able to play with No. 3 in the state.”