Oakwood Christian closes out high school soccer season
The SCAA champion Oakwood Christian High School Eagles soccer team recently finished up its 2019 season with two final matches.
Friendship Christian School 6, Oakwood Christian 3
Friendship Christian made the drive up from Suwanee, Ga. on Sept. 26 to face OCA on Senior Night for the Eagles and played spoiler in the battle of unbeatens by handing the hosts a loss.
FCS jumped out to 2-0 lead midway through the first half before Caleb Epperson found the net for the Eagles in the 22nd minute. The score would remain 2-1 to close out the first half of play.
The visitors quickly made it 3-1 in the second half, but Andrew Phillips would move from defense to offense and scored in the 48th minute to pull OCA back to within a goal at 3-2. Then, just one minute later, Epperson blasted a ball from outside of the 18-yard box to tie things up.
But things would go sour for the Eagles the rest of the way as FCS continued to pound at the Oakwood defense. They would tack on three final goals to close it out, while shots on goal for the Eagles down the stretch would be swallowed up the FCS keeper.
Price Ray made 20 saves for the Eagles in the loss.
Oakwood Christian 2, Covenant Christian 0
The Eagles’ season finale would take place on the road this past Monday in Cumming, Ga. as they faced CCA for the first time in school history.
With forwards Ryan Scarbrough and Sam Lewis and wings Chase Lanham and Naoki Gilchrist working together, the Eagles stayed on the attack and were finally rewarded in the 14th minute as Scarbrough fed Lewis for the initial goal of the match.
The Eagles kept the pressure on the remainder of the half, but could not find the back of the net and the teams went into halftime 1-0.
Some halftime adjustments led to OCA’S four seniors working with junior center-midfielder Caleb Epperson for the final half. The move immediately paid dividends as Lewis sent a ball through to Epperson that he powered in the back of the net in the 41st minute for what would be the final goal of the night.
Oakwood poured on more steam in the final 39 minutes, but were unable to get another ball past the CCA keeper. Meanwhile, Ray had just four saves as the defense of Caleb and Thomas Buckels, Chase Hepinstall and Phillips controlled the action.
“Although we came up one match short of fulfilling one of our team goals of being undefeated, we had an amazing season,” head coach Dirk Dickson said. “From the leadership of the seniors to the willingness to fulfill any role by the underclassmen, you simply could not have asked for a better team to coach. We did become a family.
“I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to coach this team and look forward to continuing next season right where we ended this one.”