By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
jnewell@mihomepaper.com
DAVISON — The Oxford High School boys varsity soccer team beat Lake Orion 2-1 in a penalty shootout in the MHSAA District 6 soccer final on Oct. 17 at Davison High School.
Lake Orion finished the season at 11-4-2 and were OAA White division champs. Oxford, ranked fourth in the state, now moves on to play West Bloomfield in the region semifinal.
Throughout regulation and two overtimes, the Dragons played an incredible game on both defense and offense to keep the Wildcats in check and force penalty kicks.
The game ended in a 1-1 tie in regulation. Neither team scored in the two overtime halves, and the game went into a best of five penalty shootout.
Oxford (14-1-5) scored their first three goals but it was Wildcat goalie Nolan Mauser who sealed the victory, stopping Lake Orion’s first three penalty shots and ending any chance for the Dragons.
Lake Orion reached the district final after defeating Davison 6-0 in the first round of district play, and then beat Grand Blanc 5-3 in the district semifinal. Oxford reached the district final after beating Clarkston 4-2 in the semifinal on Oct. 15.
Oxford head coach Adam Bican said his team faced repeated pressure from the Dragons, who the Wildcats previously beat 4-0 on Sept. 30.
“They’re well coached. Those kids are our cross-town rivals. They had no problem getting up for this game. They’re extremely well organized and dangerous. It was much different than our game a couple of weeks ago,” Bican said. “Lake Orion was just very, very good this evening.”
Oxford senior Tristan Warthun scored the Wildcat’s goal in regulation with 18:18 to play in the first half, a hard, low shot to the back of the net off a pass from junior Ryan Pietsch.
With 2:36 left in the first half, Lake Orion senior Deniz Redzep sent a chip shot up field deep into the Wildcat defense and senior Billy Kappler headed the ball over Mauser to tie the game 1-1.
Lake Orion kept the pressure up on the Wildcats throughout regulation and in the two 10-minute overtimes, but neither team was able to capitalize and were headed into the much-dreaded penalty kicks.
Drew Cady, Luca Erskine and Ryan Clark all scored for the Wildcats and Mauser made three saves to give Oxford the 3-0 victory in penalty kicks, and the game.
Mauser said he was nervous heading into penalty shootout.
“If you’re not nervous you’re not human. I just tried to stay confident in myself, confident in my ability, read their legs (as they were kicking) and made some saves,” Mauser said,
“It would have been nice to finish some of our scoring opportunities, but I can’t take anything away from Lake Orion, they played extremely well. They have a great coach, they had a fantastic season and I expected nothing but their best tonight and they gave it,” Bican said.
Semifinal against Grand Blanc
The Lake Orion Boys Varsity Soccer team advanced to the district final with a 5-3 upset victory over sixth-ranked Grand Blanc on Oct. 15.
The Dragons opened the scoring 13 minutes into the game when senior Drew Hyttinen weaved through defenders in the Grand Blanc box to score a short-side goal.
Nine minutes later, senior Billy Kappler received a through ball from senior Matias Ballina-Loza and beat the sliding Grand Blanc goalkeeper with a far post shot to give Lake Orion the 2-0 lead.
Grand Blanc fought back, scoring their first goal with 6:54 remaining in the half.
Two minutes after Grand Blanc’s goal, Lake Orion junior Hudson Case launched a missile into the upper right corner of the net beyond the diving goalkeeper’s finger tips, giving the Dragons a 3-1 lead entering halftime.
Less than eight minutes into the second half, Ballina-Loza exploited an opening near the Grand Blanc goal, placing a laser under the crossbar for the Dragons’ fourth goal.
Grand Blanc then scored back-to-back goals less than four minutes apart, but the Dragons maintained a slim 4-3 lead.
With 6:21 remaining in the match, Ballina-Loza fed a ball through his covering defender to senior Drew Hyttinen who cut across the goal mouth and scored a well-placed shot to make it 5-3.
Brian Kappler contributed to this report.