The Oakville Senior High School boys’ soccer team has had great success playing in the rain this season and Tuesday night was no exception as the Tigers battled the elements for the second straight game to move past Summit 3-1 in a Class 3 sectional.
The Tigers now will make their first final four appearance in 10 years and will face Francis Howell Central in the quarterfinals this Saturday.
Oakville head coach Dave Robben told the Call he is excited about advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2001.
“Any time you have a chance to make a run, it’s really fun,” Robben said.
The head coach said his players earned their spot in the final four and attributes their success to hard work and good chemistry.
“Sometimes you sense with a group that the combination of players you have in terms of the talent, the combination you have in terms of the camaraderie, the team chemistry and this group kind of showed us early on … hard work.
“This group from day one really, really, really, really worked hard and they came together really early,” Robben said. “It’s always the sign of a good team when they are having fun when they’re together.”
The Tigers (19-7-1) were led to victory by forward Jared Swierk, who scored his first-ever hat trick in the contest.
The game-winner was on a goal kick, his second of the night.
“I was just trying to keep the ball low because I knew it was gonna skip,” Swierk said.
Swierk tallied his 21st score of the season with the “insurance goal” toward the end of the second half to end Summit’s hope of a comeback. Summit scored one late in the second half.
Swierk said he was excited to be playing still.
“I’ve never been in the quarterfinals. I’ve never even won districts, so this is huge for us,” he said.
Robben said he was proud of Swierk and talked about the total team effort from his squad.
“So Jared gets the three goals. That first goal was huge,” he said “Well, that first goal is always huge and on that last insurance goal I thought that was a great run. Luke Miller had a great run down … and served the ball over.
“That was good team play. That was probably, as far as a buildup, our best counterattack,” Robben continued. “It was three good goals, but this team we knew they weren’t going to quit and they didn’t. They just kept coming at us.”
Midfielder Zach Klipsch also played major role in the victory, according to Robben.
“Zach Klipsch had a great game,” he said. “The midfield attack was huge tonight.
“Zach is a four-year player. He’s one of our captains … and tonight I thought he was the key. I don’t know how many head balls he won in the middle. The little play we had out of the midfield, he was able to generate that.”
Despite being ahead on the scoreboard going into the half, Robben thought his squad needed to make some adjustments.
“We had a frantic pace. That’s not our style and part of that was the pressure that Summit put us under,” Robben said. “We knew they weren’t going to go away easy and they didn’t. They kept coming back and they kept coming at us.
“That’s what we talked about at halftime. We normally play with a lot of connectedness and that wasn’t there in the first half. That’s when we really stepped up and really played Oakville soccer in the second half,” Robben said “We all started playing our connected kind of game where we started looking for one another and supporting one another. So that was really the difference in the second half there.”
