By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Dominant first halves lead to short halftime speeches.
That’s probably fine with the Ozark Tigers, who seem to thrive in the opening 40 minutes.
Ozark put through three first-half goals on its way to a convincing 3-0 win over Kickapoo Wednesday night in a matchup of Class 4 District 10 teams.
“Sometimes it’s hard at halftime, when you’ve played so well, to figure out something we can do a little better,” said Ozark coach Tom Davidson. “Our main focus was, ‘Let’s keep up the intensity, not just hold up this lead and get out of here. Let’s attack.’ I thought we did that. We just didn’t get the (scoring) chances in the second half that we did in the first half.”
Ozark put an exclamation point on a one-sided first half with a spectacular goal in the final seconds.
Ozark’s wall deflected a Kickapoo free kick, and the Tigers quickly countered.
TK Stine won possession near midfield and raced toward the other end, where he connected with Wade Korns.
Korns used a deceptive move to get around Kickapoo goalkeeper Jacob Holman for an easy tap-in with two seconds left on the clock.
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“I faked the shot, then just kind of tapped it to the left to go by,” Korns said. “(Holman) does a great job of taking away angles, so if I had shot it (the first time), he probably would’ve saved because he’s a really good keeper.”
The Tigers peppered Holman and the Kickapoo defense with 16 total shots in the first half, 11 of which were on goal.
“(Kickapoo’s) goalkeeper was unbelievable tonight,” Davidson said. “He probably saved another three or four goals, and then their defenders blocked a few more.”
Ozark went up 1-0 in the 23rd minute when Stine’s crosser into the box found sophomore Troy Davidson for a header. The Tigers made it 2-0 about 10 minutes later when Levi Corum scored off Eli Lairmore’s assist.
“We played really well together, all around,” Korns said. “We had great ball pressure, which is what we thrive on.”
Following a 2-0 home loss to Catholic last Thursday, the Tigers (5-1 overall) have since thumped Willard (7-3 after leading 6-0 at halftime) and Kickapoo. The Tigers also scored twice in the first half in a 3-0 home win against Glendale on August 30.
“We’re happy with where we’re at,” Tom Davidson said. “In a perfect world, we would’ve been 6-0 at this point. But we didn’t play well against Catholic. I don’t know what happened. I feel like this team was every bit as good as the Catholic team.”
Even with the shutout loss to Catholic, Ozark has tallied 23 goals in six matches.
“We were young last year, pretty much juniors and sophomores,” Korns said. “This year, we have seniors and upperclassmen who have experience.”
Ozark faces Liberty North, Springfield Central and Carthage in this weekend’s Parkview Tournament.
Kickapoo (5-4 overall) returns to action next Wednesday against Parkview.
