Scorpions stick to plan, piece together upset
Oakland Mills follows familiar path to advance in 2A South region
There are few secrets when teams line up to play against an Oakland Mills boys soccer team under the leadership of legendary coach Don Shea. The Scorpions don’t care much for dominating time of possession, and don’t expect them to play the same formation throughout the game. It’s among many methods that have helped Shea and the Scorpions remain one of the best teams in Howard County for decades, but opponents argue their style isn’t the right way to play the game. Shea has long heard whispers about it. “There is actually a method to our madness,” Shea said after visiting Oakland Mills’ 2-0 victory over No. 12 Wilde Lake in a 2A South region playoff game Tuesday afternoon. “We do play for corner kicks, we do play for our set pieces. Every goal that England scored in the World Cup was off set pieces. Everyone loved Iceland and their long throw-ins. ‘You don’t play real soccer,’ I hear. I don’t know what the heck you want me to do. We play with what we have ... and we have a lot of athleticism and traditionally we play with a lot of heart.”
Agree with the Scorpions’ style or not, it’s hard to argue against Shea’s seven state titles at the Columbia school. And more recently, Oakland Mills won 10 games in 2017 and went toe-to-toe with eventual 2A state finalist River Hill in the playoffs before falling in penalty kicks.
On Tuesday, Scorpions senior James Casseus scored the first goal of the contest in the 15th minute, and Amari Jangha doubled the Scorpions lead with 13 minutes to play. They did what they have always done to defeat the Wildecats: rely on set pieces and then hold their lead with suffocating 11-man defense to capture their ninth shutout of the year and second of the playoffs.
It was Oakland Mills’ (11-5) seventh straight victory and Shea’s first against Wilde Lake (10-3-2) since his son Trevor, who won three state titles playing for his father at Oakland Mills, became the Wildecats head coach in 2016.
“I didn’t think about, seriously,” Don Shea admitted after the game. “Someone told me after the game, ‘You’re 1-3 against your son but you won the one that counts.’ ”
The Scorpions will travel to Clarksville and face River Hill in the 2A South region, Section I final at 5 p.m. Friday.