Oxford defeats Lake Orion in penalty shootout to claim second straight district title
By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
DAVISON — The Oxford High School boys varsity soccer team are district champs after winning a hard-fought game 2-1 against Lake Orion on Oct. 17 in a penalty shootout.
This is the Wildcats second consecutive district title. Oxford beat Clarkston 3-2 last year to claim in the district championship at Oxford High School.
The MHSAA District 6 final at Davison on Thursday 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.
The Wildcats are ranked fourth in the state and finished the regular season at 12-1-5, their only defeat being a 2-0 loss to third-ranked Troy High School in the final game of the season.
Oxford reached the district final after beating Clarkston 4-2 in the semifinal on Oct. 15. Lake Orion (11-4-2) defeated Davison 6-0 in the first round of district play, then beat Grand Blanc 5-3 in the district semifinal.
Oxford head coach Adam Bican said he was proud of the way his team responded to the 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.”
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.
“It feels great. We’ve been putting in the work every day from conditioning to practice. We’ve been consistent. Everything about us is consistent.,” Warthun. “I was lucky enough to score one for us. I was just hoping that (Pietsch) would play (the ball) back, saw it laying there and let it rip.”
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 Oxford goalkeeper Nolan Mauser to tie the game 1-1.
Neither team scored in the second half or in the two 10-minute overtimes and were headed into the much-dreaded penalty kicks.
Going into penalty kicks, Bican said he knew his team was ready to handle the pressure and told them so.
“We’re ready. We’re ready for penalty kicks. We have the best goalkeeper around and our guys are strong, fully committed and it showed,” Bican said.
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.
Still, even the coach was surprised when Mauser stopped three penalty kicks.
“It’s wonderful having Nolan Mauser in goal. Saving the first three PKs is unbelievable. He’s our rock, he’s our captain. He’s been here four years and he is extremely proud to be an Oxford Wildcat and he shows it every time he steps on the pitch,” Bican said.
Mauser, no stranger to facing penalty shots, has been the Wildcat’s starting goalie for four years and said this district win his senior year was special.
“My sophomore year in the first round of districts we lost in a penalty shootout to Grand Blanc. To win it (against Lake Orion) like this, in a penalty shootout, it’s a full-circle moment and it feels so good,” Mauser said. “This team has been together a long time. We’ve got a lot of seniors on this team and I’m just so proud of my boys. We all worked so hard and deserve this. And I’m just so excited because I get to have another 80 minutes with my boys.”
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, adding that he credits his defense for keeping Oxford in the game. “My defense has been amazing all year. You can’t have a great goalkeeper without a great defense. And my center back, Drew Cady, he took some shots during that game – he looked like he was about to pass out – but he played strong and he played amazing.”
Some of the keys for the Wildcats were being disciplined defensively and knowing their roles, Bican said.
“Everybody knows their responsibilities: switching, moving the ball around and moving players around. They’re well versed in it and know exactly what we want to do. It would have been nice 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.
Oxford was scheduled to take on West Bloomfield (9-6-2) in the Region 2 semifinals on Tuesday in Novi after Leader press time. The winner will play either Detroit Catholic Central (9-6-3) or Okemos (8-8-4) in the region final at 7 p.m. Thursday at Novi Meadow Stadium.
Oxford previously beat West Bloomfield 4-0 on Sept. 11 but the coach knows that in the post season every team is going to bring their A game.
“It really does not matter what happened in the regular season, you can learn a couple of things about people, but when it’s the post season everybody is up for the game. So, we’re looking for another really strong challenge and we are not looking past that game, I promise you,” Bican said.
One of the hallmarks of the Wildcats is that they are a cohesive team that does what they need to do to win, with each player knowing their role and fulfilling their responsibilities.
Warthun said that the team gets along well and spends time together off the field, adding strength and unity to the team when it steps on to the pitch.
“Outside of soccer we hang out a lot. We have team dinners, we’re all pretty good friends. The team chemistry is pretty good,” Warthun said. “I was watching them and they started improving a lot. Our first game against them, 4-0, we got a couple lucky headers. But we knew that this game was going to be tough. We just never back down. A couple league games too, we go down a couple of goals but we just come back.”