Like two gunslingers from Wild West, the Oakville and Mehlville senior high school soccer teams met at sunset last week and only one survived the Class 3, District 3 Tournament.
Oakville prevailed 1-0 to advance to the state sectional game Tuesday — after the Call went to press.
Mehlville (18-6-1, 5-3 Suburban West) came into the Nov. 2 district championship game after winning six of its last seven games. Oakville (17-7-2, 6-1-1 Suburban West) had won five of its last six. The last time the two teams met in a district championship game was in 2003, when the Panthers handed the Tigers a 5-3 loss.
Mehlville Senior High School head coach Tom Harper knew that this year’s district championship would be a rough affair for both teams.
“We knew going in that it was pretty much going to be an even match,” Harper told the Call. “It was a tough match-up, and both teams played their hearts out.”
Both teams battled to a 0-0 stalemate in the first half. But it was Oakville’s Peter Hwang who scored the first and eventual game-winning goal about 15 minutes into the second half to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Jake Pittroff received the assist on Hwang’s goal.
“Right around the time of the SLUH tournament, we moved Jake into a full midfielder role where he had the freedom to roam the field,” Oakville head coach Dave Robben told the Call. “Peter’s been getting a lot of balls from Jake and has done a really good job at finishing off those plays.”
Oakville’s Ken Cooper recorded his ninth shutout of the season in the 1-0 win over Mehlville. The senior goalkeeper is currently 14-6-2 this season with a 0.89 goals- against average.
“They (Mehlville) had a couple of opportunities to score, but Ken was able to cut down the angles and get a hold of some loose balls,” Robben said. “He really kept us in the game.”
Mehlville loses seven seniors — Tony Dittmann, Eldin Duderija, Chris Efthim, Brett Gregory, Fabio Manzella, Brad Mor-rison and Almin Sabotic — to graduation.
“We lose a great group of seniors that has a great amount of leadership as well as a good amount of talent,” Harper said. “We hope that a little bit of that leadership and talent rubs off on next year’s team.”
The win for Oakville means the Tigers were scheduled to face conference opponent Lafayette (18-3-3, 6-1-1 Suburban West) in the state sectional game. The Lancers are riding a nine-game winning streak, which includes last week’s 2-1 win over CBC in the District 4 championship game. Oakville and Lafayette met Sept. 12, when the Tigers defeated the Lancers 2-1 at home.
