Middle School Soccer

Girls – Over the weekend the middle school soccer girls competed in a two day tournament at Madison County and earn a second place over all winning 2 of 3 games.  They defeated Hart Co 2-1, they defeated Elbert 2-0 but they lost to Madison County 2-1.  Yesterday, against Jefferson, the middle school Patriots improved their win loss to 3-1 by defeating the Dragons 2-1.

Katelann Mincey #6 being congratulated on her first half goal.

        Several times during the game Jefferson moved the ball deep into Patriot territory.  But good defending by Patriot defenders kept the ball out of the goal the first half of the game. 

        On the offensive side OC jumped out front first and early in the first half with a goal by Katelann Mincey in the third minute of the game that slipped by the Dragons keeper.  After that it was a wrestling match between the two teams with neither side gaining an advantage until the last three minutes of the half.

Jordan Pringle clearing the ball with keepr Mackenzie Morton looking on.

        OC made a good run at Jefferson’s goal with Alex Tuttle just in front of the Dragons keeper.  But it was not to be when after two attempts at scoring Jefferson finally cleared the ball.

        The second half saw the Dragon’s even the score when their striker scored against OC at seven minutes into the half.   

        However, the tie would only last for ten minutes when, at the 11 minutes to go mark, Vivi Diaz scored for the Patriots.  Although both teams would make drives towards each other’s goal this would be the final score of the game. 

Boys – The middle school boys also competed in the Madison County tournament and came away with a perfect 3-0 record along with being named champions.  The defeated Madison Co 2-1, then they won against Hart 3-1 and finally beat Elbert 2-0.  In the second match of the day, yesterday, OC faced off against Jefferson and gave a clinic on how soccer should be played winning by a score of 4-0.

Garrett McCormack winning a header. 

        Both teams had pretty good players but OC really shined in their ability to move the ball forward, looking for open players and passing the ball to take advantage of Jefferson’s mistakes.  They played a far more mature game than one would think middle schoolers are capable. 

        In the third minute of the game OC was already attacking Jefferson’s goal.  But Jefferson had big, quick guy as keeper and he stopped numerous Patriots shots. 

        With 18 minutes left in the half the Patriots were once again attacking but Jefferson’s keeper came out of the goal and stopped a sure score for OC.  A minute later OC sent another shot on goal from the corner but the Dragon keeper kept it out of the goal. 

        The game went like this for most of the first half until with seven minutes to go OC steals a Jefferson throw in and Brandon Pinto got the ball, moving it about 40 yards towards the Dragon goal before shooting it by their keeper for OC’s first score. Forty seconds later Pinto passes to Tyler Hooper on another attack of Jefferson’s goal and shoots it just wide of the post.

        But with four minutes left Hooper took a pass from thirty yards out and drove in to score OC’s second goal of the half. 

        Jefferson had a scoring opportunity with 25 seconds remaining with a PK (penalty kick) against OC but the ball hit the right hand post and deflected towards the corner.  OC retaliated when Hooper made another of his drives on goal and scored just a tick before the halftime buzzer sounded. 

This strike by Tyler Hooper just beat the halftime buzzer for Hooper's second goal of the game.

        OC went into the halftime break 3-0.  

        OC scored once more on a strike by Roberto Rojas at the final buzzer. 

        OCMS plays Madison County at Danielsville on Thursday, February 23^rd with the girls starting at 4:30pm.