In their last match against Eastbrook, the Oak Hill Golden Eagles defeated the Panthers 1-0 in the sectional final game to end Eastbrook’s season and advance to the regional round.
On Tuesday, the Panthers returned the favor.
Oak Hill was completely outmatched in the first half, giving up the only goal of the game in the first ten minutes and struggling offensively throughout in a 1-0 loss.
The Golden Eagles were unable to move the ball from their side of the pitch for the first 40 minutes, and their inability to push the ball forward led to Eastbrook’s early goal and, ultimately, their loss.
“We couldn’t hold on to the ball,” head coach, Jared Reel, said after the loss. “We kept giving it back to Eastbrook, and we couldn’t get it out of our own half. When you give the ball back to them in their own half, they are going to get chances to score and put one in on us.”
Isaiah Henry and Luke VanBibber, Oak Hill’s two biggest offensive threats, were nonfactors, while the team, as a whole, was unable to sustain any kind of offensive pressure.
“We took ourselves out of the game,” Reel said. “We couldn’t possess the ball, and we couldn’t make passes to our own teammates. They didn’t do anything special that took our kids out of the game – we did that [ourselves.] When you can’t hold to the ball, when you can’t pass, and when you don’t communicate, we take ourselves out of it.”
After what he called a “terrible” performance against Eastbrook, Reel expected drastic improvement going forward.
“I expect us to play better,” Reel said. “We are a better team then what we showed today and in the last three games. We are just not showing up. We don’t play well in the first half, [and then] we always seem to play better in the second half, but you can’t always come from behind and expect a good outcome.”
Reel got his wish on Thursday, as his team finally bounced back after some tough outings, using effective communication and passing throughout the match on their way to a 6-1 victory over the Taylor Titans.
“We played as a team and had six different goal scorers,” Reel said. “We repositioned a few players, which helped us control the tempo of the game. It was a team effort tonight.”
After struggling against Eastbrook, Henry and VanBibber played like their usual selves against Taylor, each netting a goal, while Thommy Seybold, Jaden Phillips, Gabe Overmyer, and Silas Guyre netted the other four goals for the Golden Eagles.
Oak Hill’s strong offensive play continued on Monday, as the Golden Eagles scored seven second half goals in an 8-0 rout of the Maconaquah Braves.
Guyre had a hat trick for the Golden Eagles, while Henry put two in the back of the net. Gavin Holz, Brendin Dixon, and Corn Gibson scored the other three goals for the Golden Eagles in the victory.
Since their 1-0 loss to the Eastbrook Panthers, Oak Hill has outscored their opponents by a margin of 14-1.
