Junior midfielder Zach Moore continued his scoring streak and put the Tigers on the board with a goal in the 3rd minute of play against the visiting Webb City Cardinals on a sunny Friday afternoon in Tiger Stadium. Junior teammate Landon Hunter got the second goal of the game for Ozark in the 12th minute of the game as he pulled a beautiful move made famous by Argentina’s legendary Diego Maradona as he beat his defender up the right side of the field and placed a hard low shot across the face of the goal and past the Webb City keeper into the far side netting. Zach Moore would score his second goal of the game to give Ozark a 3-0 lead in the 29th minute after receiving a pass through traffic from Seth Hampton. Late in the first half, Webb City got their first goal as Kyle Handley floated a long free kick into the wind from 30+ yards out. The ball hung in the air and then managed to dip just under the cross bar and over the finger tips of Ozark’s keeper, Matt Funderburk. The score at half-time was 3-1 in favor of the Tigers.
The Cardinals came out with increased energy with the wind in their back and seemed to take control of the game for the first 10 to 15 minutes of the second half. Eight minutes into the half, Ryan Clark got their second goal of the game to draw within one of the Ozark Tigers and then had a couple other opportunities to even the score and change the course of the game. Momentum however shifted back to the Tigers midway through the second half and was evidenced by junior Seth Hampton’s goal in the 58th minute followed up a minute later with a goal by senior Zach Marlow. Marlow would find the back of the net again in the 67th minute to give the Tigers a 6-2 lead. Junior Andrew VanHoesen crashed the goal on a set piece in the 72nd minute of play and headed the ball that came off the keeper’s gloves back over the keeper and into the goal for the final Ozark goal of the game. Webb City did not give up however, and Jordan Wood found the back of the net one more time for the Cardinals in the final seconds of stoppage time to result in the final score of 7-3 in favor of the Ozark Tigers. The victory puts the Tigers in the winner’s bracket of the tournament and guarantees they will play all games on their home turf. Ozark will play Carthage on Saturday morning at 10:45. Carthage defeated Branson by a score of 7-0 on Friday night in Nixa. A win against Carthage puts Ozark in the championship game at 4:00 pm. A loss puts them in the 3rd place game at 2:15 pm.