{"id":6200,"date":"2025-10-15T16:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/6200\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:18:14","slug":"lake-orion-tops-oxford-in-ot-classic-advances-to-district-final-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/6200\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Orion tops Oxford in OT classic, advances to district final \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAPEER \u2013 Lake Orion edged out rival Oxford 2-1 in a postseason overtime thriller Tuesday night, avenging last season\u2019s district championship shootout loss<\/a> to the Wildcats in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a battle,\u201d said Dragons head coach Jason Wise, whose team now advances to the district finals. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting anything less \u2013 a rivalry game. We\u2019ve already played once, a lot of friends. So you knew it was going to be a good one. But I didn\u2019t know it was going to be that good. They know each other\u2019s tendencies, a lot of action because there is not a lot of space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oxford head coach Adam Bican spoke about the level of quality as well and how both teams gave it all between the lines. \u201cI thought we all had opportunities, but the pace of play was end to end the whole time, so it was a great game,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m definitely positive that my guys left everything out on the field, and that\u2019s all you can ask for.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a game that was fast-paced from start to finish, it was the quickest attack of the night that decided it just over one minute into the second overtime.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats had earned a free kick deep in Lake Orion territory, but Dragons goalie Brendan Zale claimed the ball in midair and quickly started the counterattack. The ball almost seemed to teleport its way down the field before finding its way onto the foot of Jakub Wolski, who buried a shot past the charging goalkeeper to give Lake Orion its first lead of the night and ultimately prevent the teams from deciding their postseason fate with penalty kicks for a second season in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was through to the net, and I beat my defender, and I thought I would just play it safe and slide it under the keeper,\u201d Wolski said.<\/p>\n

\"SoccerOxford’s Ryan Clark (19) holds off Lake Orion’s William Farmer during the D1 district semifinal played Tuesday night in Lapeer. Lake Orion scored in the second overtime to avoid penalties and win, 2-1. (KEN SWART – For MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

Despite the brisk exchanges of possession, the defenses largely held strong. Anchored by William Farmer, the Dragons held Oxford\u2019s transition attack in check, especially in the first half.<\/p>\n

At the other end, Lake Orion had little luck against the Oxford defense led by senior captain Braden Bowlby.<\/p>\n

After a scoreless first half, the teams traded goals in the second half with Ryan Clark staking the Wildcats to a 1-0 advantage with 29:25 to play when his sliding stab was just enough to send a cross from Ryan Pietsch flying into the net. Lake Orion tied the game with 6:42 left when Joao Pedro Piccinilli slotted in a penalty kick.<\/p>\n

Overall, the shot board favored Lake Orion, who fired 15 shots on goal versus just seven shots on goal for Oxford, though the Wildcats earned 18 set pieces (seven corner kicks and 11 free kicks) in Lake Orion territory. But ultimately, Oxford just couldn\u2019t convert enough chances to win.<\/p>\n

The game was a hard-fought, emotional affair from the opening whistle between a pair of rivals that are very familiar with each other having grown up playing with and against each other. The two towns even share a recreational soccer league, and that familiarity was on display both during and after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think something should be said about the boys knowing each other from each team,\u201d Bican said. \u201cObviously, we lost tonight. But the boys on that team (Lake Orion) came over and hugged their friends on our team because they know how that hurt. That\u2019s what makes this rivalry special. It\u2019s all love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo gallery of Clarkston vs. Grand Blanc in D1 boys soccer district semifinal action<\/a><\/p>\n

The win meant Lake Orion (9-4-3) defeated its rivals for the second time this season, having also won the regular season meeting between the teams. The Dragons will now face another rival, Clarkston, on Thursday for the district title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to relax the legs, talk a little bit, and get back out here and try it again,\u201d Wise said. \u201cI\u2019m happy with how they played (tonight) because they\u2019ve been working really hard, going extra times on the weekends and putting in the work. So I was happy for them because I felt like they deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oxford ends their season 8-9-4. The Wildcats finished with a 3-3-1 mark in the always-tough Oakland Activities Association Red Division in what was slated to be a transition year after graduating most of their starters from last year\u2019s team that made it all the way to the state semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that going through the schedule that we play you\u2019ll have ups and downs,\u201d Bican said. \u201cBut I\u2019m extremely proud with the way the boys came around and the way they grew as a team and as humans. I thought our play definitely picked up, and I\u2019m really proud of that, always getting better. They trained every day to get better, and I\u2019m really proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 6:44 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAPEER \u2013 Lake Orion edged out rival Oxford 2-1 in a postseason overtime thriller Tuesday night, avenging last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2044,6655,181,795,143,904,145,144,903,127],"class_list":["post-6200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-high-school-sports","tag-lake-orion","tag-latest-headlines","tag-michigan","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oxford","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}