Oakland gives rival Detroit the boot
ROCHESTER HILLS – Scoring goals has become a difficult task this season for Oakland University. On Wednesday night, the goals came in triplets.
Miche’le Lipari, Konner McNamara and Gavin Hoy each scored as the Oakland men’s soccer team (4-9-1) won, 3-1, over local rival Detroit Mercy at the OU Soccer Field. The Golden Grizzlies finished the match with a 30-8 shot advantage.
“I am proud of the guys for overcoming difficult conditions,” said Oakland head coach Eric Pogue. “Detroit is huge derby for us. The team came out excited and ready to play.”
Oakland (4-9-1) peppered the Detroit goal with 20 shots in the first half. Lipari made the pressure pay off in the 36th minute when he scored off the rebound from a shot by Johnny Dreshaj. McNamara made it a two-goal lead for OU just minutes before the half, when he fought off his defender to put home a corner kick by Jon Evans.
Oakland continued to pressure the Titans in the second half, and Hoy added a third goal in the 48th minute. A failed clearance by Detroit put the ball to Hoy who fired in a shot that went off the goalkeeper and in from 16 yards out.
The Titans (4-8-1) did not quit and Moustafa Bazzi scored a late consolation goal. Patrick Soltys set up the play with a long through-ball, which wrong-footed a number of OU defenders when it held up in the rainy conditions. After initially slipping on his first attempt to shoot the ball, Bazzi fired home from close range.
Goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt made three saves for OU. His counterpart, Anthony Shepherd made eight saves. The Detroit defense also aided Shepherd by twice clearing shots off the line from Jake Przybycien and McNamara, respectively.
“(Playing Detroit) is not just another midweek game for us,” added Pogue. “We know their players and coaches. It’s important to us and now our guys have bragging rights.”
The Golden Grizzlies have won back-to-back games for the first time this season and will look to carry the momentum into their match at Western Illinois on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. It is the second week in a row that Oakland has faced the first place team in The Summit League standings.
“It’s definitely a confidence boost to get two quality wins against two good opponents,” concluded Pogue. “It will help us heading into Western Illinois, which is a big game for us.”
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, High School, Oakland University
