Oxford falls to Hartland in regional semifinal

PREP SOCCER

Oxford’s Amelia Brown, top, takes a header in front of Hartland’s Emma Storm during the Wildcats’ loss Tuesday in a Division 1 regional semifinal game at Grand Blanc High School. TIMOTHY ARRICK — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP

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By Michael J Wallwork

For MediaNews Group

GRAND BLANC >> The Oxford Wildcats’ season came to an end with a shootout loss to the Hartland Eagles in a D1 regional semifinal Tuesday night.

Oxford goalie Evangeline Lulgjuraj stopped one Hartland penalty kick, but Oxford came up short twice, including hitting the left post in Round 3, and fell in the shootout 4-2 following a scoreless regulation and overtime between the teams.

The Wildcats had the better chances during the run of play, especially in the first half — a half they largely dominated. But they could not find the net despite creating several good chances.

The closest they could come was a blast off the right post that appeared to have the goalkeeper beaten with 15:45 remaining in the opening half.

After halftime, the Eagles made some adjustments, and the Hartland defense, anchored by senior captain Sophia Pietila, limited Oxford’s chances in the second half and overtime. However, despite having more of the ball over the final 60 minutes, Hartland didn’t create very many good scoring chances of its own. After 100 minutes of play, Oxford had a slight edge in shots on goal, though Hartland had more total shots.

“I was telling the girls. You didn’t lose the game. You lost a PK shootout. Both teams worked hard, and I feel like we didn’t give much up,” Oxford head coach Gabby Schriver said. “We had a good first half and ultimately got tired,” she added. “But they worked hard. They deserved to make it to the PK shootout, and those things can go either way.”

Oxford finishes the year 9-9-3 after a slow start.

The Wildcats still won seven of their final 10 games on the season, with all three losses in that stretch coming by one goal to highly-ranked teams.

The program also captured its first district title since 1994.

“It’s a testament to the leadership on this team and the seniors, and everyone having the attitude that we are just going to keep pushing,” Schriver said.

“We wanted to go as deep as we could (in the state tournament) so we said our season is not going to define us. We’re just going to keep getting better, and that’s what we did.”

The Wildcats will graduate six seniors from this year’s team and should return 12 players.

“Six (seniors) that have made a huge mark on the program and are really the identity of our team. So we’ll have some really bit shoes to fill next year in terms of leadership and attitude and mentality,” Schriver said.

Hatland (17-4-1) advances to Thursday’s regional final where the Eagles will face Northville in an all-KLAA regional final.

“When you get to the tournament, it’s win or go home. So you’ve got to get it done, when you’ve got to get it done.

“It’s all up to those girls and the effort that they put in and the work they put it. I think in the overtime how fit they were and how they were still going after it to the last moment,” Hartland head coach Andrew Kartsounes said.

“We’ve been here a few times in the last few years. This is where we wanted to get to, down to the final eight teams, and we’ll be seeing a Northville team that we played early in the year in the league.”