Last season Byron bested the Albert Lea boys’ soccer team in a 5-4 wild game in the regular season, but a few weeks later the Tigers got the final laugh when they beat the Bears in the section playoffs.

The rematch this season played out in a 2-0 win for Byron, who came out early to take control of the game.

“Right out of the gate they were aggressor and got to the 50-50 balls,” said Albert Lea head coach Elia Romano.

Albert Lea (5-7, 2-5 Big Nine) outshot Byron 11-10 and had its three-game winning streak snapped at home.

“I think Byron had a lot of people back from that section defeat last year and we didn’t return that many players,” Romano said. “They clearly came in with a lot of purpose. I think they remembered us from last year and they’ve been biding their time for the last 12 months at least for this game whereas as we took it as another game.”

The Bears (12-1, 5-1 HVL) found the goal in the 11th minute when Matt Thorpe scored on a rocket to the back post of the Albert Lea goal.

Logan Gunderson made it 2-0 with 17 minutes left in the first half when he received a through ball and broke in behind the Tiger defense.

Albert Lea attack looked dangerous at times, especially in the second half, but it could not find many serious goal-scoring opportunities as Byron committed nine players to defense in the second half.

“We definitely played better in the second half,” Romano said. “We had a lot more intent over the ball. We adjusted and in the second half we matched their intensity and looked like the better side at points.”

When the Tigers were able to commit the entire team to attacking they controlled possession and started finding more chances, but it was difficult for Albert Lea to do so.

“Most importantly we really didn’t impose ourselves in their end of the field and I think there’s a lot of balls we could have won in the middle third of the field that we just let them get over the top of and two guys beat four,” Romano said.

The Tigers travel to Mankato East Tuesday to face the eighth-ranked Cougars and have a rematch with Austin Thursday in Austin before they close out the regular season Saturday against Kasson-Mantorville.