By Mike Stechschulte
Junior – Oxford High School
The Oxford Varsity Soccer team won its last two games of the regular season against Linden and Holly, and gave a bold statement heading into the district playoffs. Last year, the Wildcats made it all the way to the regional finals before losing to Petosky. It was the farthest the team has ever gone in school history.
Against Linden, the Wildcats scored an impressive come-from-behind win beating the Eagles for the first time this season. In the first half, the game was very close defensively until Linden scored with a rebound shot off the goalpost at 27:41.
In the second half, Oxford tried everything to score, but Linden’s goaltender stood on his head, making many saves including a diving save off a shot by Keane Kalso. After working hard for most of the half, the Wildcats persistence finally paid off when Jimmy Henry headed a ball into the net off a long kick by Kalso to tie the game with 8:17 to play.
Then, just over a minute later, Henry added another goal, this time on a breakaway to put Oxford ahead, 2-1. Kalso also assisted on the goal, and the Wildcats held on to win the game.
On Friday, the Wildcats traveled to Holly to play in a make-up game, and came away with a 4-1 victory. Junior Andy Forte scored two goals for Oxford, Eddie Summers scored on a penalty kick and Kalso added yet another.
The Wildcats head into the district playoffs having won their last five games in a row, and hope to make a splash as they play their first game tonight (Wednesday) against the winner of the Lapeer East and Lapeer West matchup.
Mike Stechschulte is a Junior at Oxford High School and plans to major in the field of journalism.