By Mike Stechschulte
Junior – Oxford High School
The Oxford Wildcats Soccer team put two more games in the ‘Win? column after soundly defeating the Brandon Blackhawks and Lapeer West Panthers by final scores of 5-1 and 4-0 respectively. The victories improved the Wildcats? record to 3-1-2 for the season.
Against Brandon, Oxford got things going early with a goal from Dave Kourtjian at 36:37. Just minutes later, Jimmy Henry added a goal on an assist by Paul Ebenhoeh that gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead and some major momentum.
That momentum increased when a Blackhawks player hit the crossbar on a penalty kick with 9 minutes remaining in the half. Dave Kourtjian added another goal with just less than 5 minutes to play to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead. The Blackhawks scored their only goal of the game with one second remaining in the first half. The shot barely beat the buzzer and Oxford goalie Chris Schnur.
In the second half, Jimmy Henry continued the scoring for the Wildcats, deflecting a shot off a defenders back and into the Blackhawks? goal to put the Cats up by three goals again. Henry completed the hat trick with 4:37 left with an assist by Keane Kalso that sealed the 5-1 victory for the Wildcats.
Against Lapeer West, the Wildcats once again showed their strength and determination by shutting out the Panthers by a score of 4-0. The first half started off slow, with neither team generating many offensive chances, until Dave Kourtjian put the Wildcats on the board at 17:22 to give the Cats a 1-0 lead.
The second half looked as if it was going to be just as slow, but Kourtjian lit it up again for the Wildcats just 4 minutes in and Oxford took a 2-0 lead. For the remainder of the half, Oxford’s defense held the Panthers scoreless, and with 2:03 left, freshman Zach Wazolina scored to seal the win.
However, the Wildcats weren’t done as Senior Eddie Summers booted one last shot past Lapeer West’s goalie with just 3 seconds remaining on the clock to finish the day. Goalie Chris Schnur recorded his first shutout of the season for Oxford as well.
The Wildcats get set to play the Pontiac Notre Dame Prep Fighting Irish tomorrow (Thursday) at 7:00 P.M. After wrapping up a three game home stand, the Cats head to Linden to play the Eagles on Sept. 22.
Mike Stechschulte is a Junior at Oxford High School and plans to major in the field of journalism.