Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mineral Ridge forward Braylen Cowger (10) muscles Bristol senior Carson Weston off the ball in the team’s 2-1 victory on Tuesday in Bristolville.

BRISTOLVILLE — Brandon Komsa recorded a school record 26 saves for Mineral Ridge on Tuesday to help the Rams take down Bristol, 2-1, and hand the Panthers their first loss this year.

Komsa set a school record for saves in the win.

“Awesome work by Brandon,” Mineral Ridge coach Worthy Cottrill said. “It’s been amazing (so far this season). He’s had two shut outs already this season. It’s been hard work and he’s putting everything in. It’s not even a position that he wants to play, but he’s doing it and he’s doing good at it.”

Bristol made Komsa work for it, peppering shots on net throughout the game, but with the exception of a goal from Panthers senior Wyatt Clisby, the senior goalkeeper kept the sheet clean.

Rams sophomore Spencer Pal got the first goal on the board, but was quickly matched by Clisby’s goal just four minutes after.

While Bristol spent a lot of time in the attacking third, it couldn’t connect with the back of the net again.

The Rams’ decisive goal came 10 minutes into the second half, with senior Tyler Simpson finding the back of the net on a penalty kick.

That’s when it felt like things were clicking for the Rams.

“Once we got that lead, and we had to close this thing out, everything started to come together,” Cottrill said.

Bristol falls to 5-1 on the season.

“We were doing good up until today,” Panthers coach Cory Schrecengost said. “We had a long four-day weekend, which kind of worried me a little bit coming off a big win Thursday against Badger. Ridge came out and just outplayed us, that’s all.

“We just couldn’t finish the ball. They were controlling the middle well, just a lot of shots over the top that we can’t have, that we haven’t had. We just came out and just didn’t play our game today.”

Bristol looks to get back in the win column today when it hosts Lordstown. The teams already met earlier in the season, with the Panthers taking home a 4-2 win.

Coming off a frustrating game, Schrecengost hopes his team can come out energized and ready to go.

“We’ll bounce back from this one,” Schrecengost said. “They’re aggressive. They’re a hard team, and they’re going to want to come out and win.”

Up next for the Rams is a league contest on the road against Waterloo.

The game plan for Mineral Ridge (3-1) is to stick with what’s been working.

“We need to continue to do the same things,” Cottrill said. “Put the pressure on them early and put the work in late and see if it happens again.”