Mention the Talawanda High School boys soccer schedule to coach Reed Maltbie and the first word you hear is “brutal” and it is likely to be repeated frequently in the next few minutes.

The Braves entered their home game with Wilmington last Saturday with a 4-8-0 season overall record, but their Southwest Ohio Conference record was a sparkling 4-1. By night’s end each of those win totals rose by one with a 2-0 win over the Hurricanes.

Maltbie put together a killer schedule for the Braves to get them ready for league play and it seems to have worked for the Braves.

Opponents have included area powers Madeira, Moeller, Wyoming, Kings, Princeton and LaSalle. All of those were losses but hard-fought ones and Talawanda brought a 5-1 SWOC mark into this week, a fact Maltbie attributes to lessons learned in those five games.

“The Madeira coach told me, ‘Your schedule is brutal.’ Madeira has the two best scorers in the state,” Maltbie said. “Playing those teams only makes these guys better. It makes them better soccer players.”

Talawanda lost 4-0 to Madeira at home Sept. 24 and gained some respect, if not a win. The Talawanda coach said his Madeira counterpart told him after their game that he has lifted his starters as early as 10 minutes to go in a game but was not able to do that against the Braves because of how hard they played.

Senior co-captain Andrew Marks said playing those top-level teams can be “frustrating” but fellow senior co-captain Villpu Antilla said he feels they play those games with less pressure.

“We have nothing to lose,” Antilla said, prompting Marks to agree.

“I am less nervous in those games,” Marks said. “We like to go in as underdogs.”

The other senior co-captain, Dylan Bailey-Van Kuren added, however, “It will not help in the tournament draw.”

Apparently, it did not hurt too badly. That draw was held Sunday and Talawanda gets a home game in the first round, hosting West Carrollton at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 15. The winner, however, travels to Centerville on Thursday to face the always-powerful Elks.

Talawanda led 1-0 against Wilmington Saturday for most of the game, but Wilmington put the ball in the net late in the game, seemingly tying it, but it was disallowed on an offsides call.

“We need to work the ball more,” Maltbie said. “Games like this scare you. You can dominate a team but they can score late and win.”

Marks said of that disallowed goal, “My heart stopped. We did not want this one to slip away.”

Bailey-Van Kuren, who scored both goals in the game against Wilmington with the first on an assist by sophomore Matt Wise, said he likes playing tough opponents.

“I like playing top-notch people,” he said. “A lot of these people will go on to play in college or even the pros.”

Maltbie praised Bailey-Van Kuren’s effort and sacrifice this season.

“Dylan was converted from playing in the back,” he said, adding it was a tough conversion for a senior, but he was willing to make the change and has thrived in it.

The win over Wilmington put Talawanda into a tie for second place in the league with Ross, a team scheduled to play in Oxford Thursday night for the final league game of the season. Harrison, the league leader at 6-0, was to play at 1-4-1 Edgewood Thursday. Wins by the Cougars and Braves Thursday would end league play with Harrison and Talawanda in a two-way tie for the championship.