FENTON — Since both coaches felt they should've won, maybe the 1-1 tie was justified.
"I would say that's a fair result,'' Oakville coach Brad Oestreich said. "It was a hard-fought game for both teams. Obviously, we would've liked to get the win — felt like we had some other good opportunities that we weren't able to finish. I think you always want to win.... but we'll take it."
De Smet coach Josh Klein echoed that sentiment. "I felt like we left a couple of points out there today and that's disappointing. But I liked the way we played — our possession was good and I was pleased with the way we responded after they scored — but our final touch wasn't there today and that's something we need to work on."
Saturday in the opening round of Pool A play of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ High School Champions League, Oakville and De Smet played to a 1-1 draw at Summit. In Saturday's early game, Fort Zumwalt South beat the host school 1-0.
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Zumwalt South (5-2 overall) leads pool play with five points — three for the win, one for the goal and one for the shutout — over De Smet (2), Oakville (2) and Summit (0). Pool A competition will continue with doubleheaders on Sept. 25 at De Smet and on Sept. 28 at Fort Zumwalt South.
De Smet is 5-1-1 this season while Summit is 4-4 and Oakville is 2-3-1.
The Pool A champion will compete in the semifinals Oct. 16, with that night's winners advancing to the title match to be played Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Creve Coeur Soccer Complex.
De Smet spread the field and controlled the game's early going Saturday afternoon with some solid possession soccer. About 12 minutes in, off a De Smet corner, Oakville defender Kyle Halamicek cleared the ball from the goal line.
Later in the half, after getting a pass from Braden Klein, the Spartans' Landon Weber ripped a shot that Oakville keeper Alex Cahill managed to deflect off the crossbar. The Oakville defense then cleared the ball from danger.
Oakville, which played a strong counter-attacking style, came on as the opening half progressed. The Tigers' Elmir Elijazovic shot over the goal on a shot from long range. Not long after that, Oakville freshman Jacob Kiser shot wide.
Just before halftime, Tarik Sopovic played the ball to Oakville teammate Braden Forrest. But De Smet keeper Jackson Keyes came strong off his line to keep the match scoreless.
"De Smet knocked it around pretty well early, but I thought we settled in and frustrated them by playing with a little more tempo,'' Oestreich said.
The match took a strange turn midway through the second half when Oakville's Ali Alkenani intercepted a De Smet fullback kick and scored with a low shot to the far corner.
"At halftime, I talked about how the game would probably come down to a beautiful goal or a mistake,'' Klein said. "Oakville took advantage of the mistake and capitalized. It was clearly a wakeup call for us."
The Oakville lead was short-lived. Less than two minutes later, De Smet's KJ Tyehimba was taken down inside the penalty area. On the ensuing penalty kick, the Spartans' Weber converted to even the score at 1-1.
In the aftermath of the PK, De Smet's Weber and Oakville's Cahill were ejected for what the referee viewed as unsportsmanlike behavior. Both teams played the rest of the way with 10 men.
"Going up 1-0, we felt like we had a little momentum, but the PK obviously changed that,'' Oakville coach Oestreich said. "But I liked how our guys stuck with the game plan. We felt like we created some chances late."
Klein added: "At this point, it's about learning and hopefully growing as a team. We have the CBC Tournament this week (playing CBC on Tuesday, Vianney on Thursday and SLUH on Saturday), so it's important for us to take what we learned here today and do what we can to move forward."
Oakville welcomes Kirkwood (1-3-1) on Tuesday and Lafayette (5-0) on Thursday.