In a game that will go along way in determining the Central Ozark Conference Champion, and the Class 3 district seeding, the Ozark Tigers notched a huge victory over their Christian County rivals, the Nixa Eagles on Tuesday Night, winning 3-2. The largest crowd of the year saw the Tigers fall behind twice, once in each half, but battle back to even the score, and then hit the game winning goal off a set piece for their only lead and the victory.
The Tigers, who lost a tough match last Thursday at the hands of Kickapoo, did start out sluggish in the early minutes of the match. In just the second minute of the contest, Eagle Senior, Caleb Romero stole a ball from a defender, drove down the right side and then buried a hard, right-footed shot to the near side of the goal, beating Ryan Bilyeu, the Ozark goalkeeper.
With the Nixa fans still celebrating their first lead of the night, the Tigers quickly rebounded. Just four minutes later, and only six minutes into the match, Tiger Senior, Seth Hampton made a quality, open field run with ball, made a fine pass to his right, finding Landon Hunter, who then delivered a great crossing pass to Zach Moore for a breakaway to the Eagle goal. Moore deposited the ball with his left foot into the upper left corner of the goal, tying the game at one.
In the 18th minute, Tanner Pesek, who had just entered the game, wasted no time and took a corner kick that Ozark was unable to clear and score from six yards out, giving Nixa their one goal lead back. The score remained at 2-1, with Nixa leading, until halftime.
In the second half, Ozark tied the match once again in the 59th minute, when Seth Hampton drove a ball into the goal from close range after a Jordan Burns corner kick that the Nixa defenders could not clear out of the six yard box.
The game-winning goal was scored just five minutes later when Landon Hunter flicked a header, from seventeen yards away, toward the Nixa goal. The Nixa keeper who had come out from the goal to make a grab, could only watch the ball sail over his head, and into the net, giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead. This goal was off of a set piece pass from defender, Andrew Presnell, who delivered the ball from mid-field.
From the last fifteen minutes, Ozark controlled the majority of the possessions and were able to defend well in its zone, to win the match 3-2.
Ozark’s overall record improves to 8-3.
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Here is Jordan Burns video interview found on SGFsoccer.com…hope the link works — If not, you can find the interview on the www.sgfsoccer.com website. Great job, JORDAN!!
JV Game : Nixa 2 Ozak 1 — Ozark goal scored by L.J. Van Helden
Next match Thursday at Home versus the Lebanon Yellowjacks, JV starting at 5 p.m.
