By Nolan Epstein (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A lot of things have happened over the last 15 years, but for the Ozark Tigers, raising a district championship plaque wasn’t one of them.
On Thursday, that finally changed in the matter of 80 minutes as Ozark (17-5-1) topped the No. 4 seed Joplin Eagles (13-12) by a 3-0 final in the Class 4, District 10 championship – giving the Tigers their first district title since 2001.
“Honestly, it’s really kind of surreal right now,” said Ozark head coach Tom Davidson, who is in his tenth season at the helm. “To do it with this group of kids, for me, is crazy good. These kids have bought into everything that we’re selling.”
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Claiming just their second district crown in the history of the program, the Tigers decided to keep the dramatics aside as they received three first-half goals – including two in the final 1:06 of the period – to take the wind out of Joplin’s proverbial sails.
“That flurry at the end of the half couldn’t have been better,” Davidson said. “It’s kind of a dream come true.”
At the 16:34 mark of the first half, forward Lawson Spence gave Ozark the initial charge it needed as the sophomore put in a gorgeous header that floated past Joplin goalkeeper Garrett Nimmo – getting the host and second-seeded Tigers on the board first.
“I think that gave us energy to get us through the rest of the match,” Spence said of his opening goal. “It hyped us up a little bit.”
Roughly 15 minutes later, things got even better in a hurry for the hungry Tigers, thanks to senior Keaton Amstutz.
With 1:06 to play in the period, a hard Joplin foul gave Amstutz a golden opportunity to extend Ozark’s lead via a PK. Amstutz promptly delivered – giving his squad a two-goal cushion.
Then, with just four seconds remaining until halftime, James Pottberg scored from 10 yards out to make it 3-0.
“It’s definitely great not knowing when my last game is going to be,” said Amstutz. “I’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”
Although the Tigers failed to score for the remaining 40 minutes of the contest, their defense was more than up to the task of thwarting all of Joplin’s scoring chances en route to pitching a clutch shutout.
“Our defense was really strong tonight,” Spence added. “Hopefully we can keep it going because we’d like to get as far as we can.”
Ozark moves on to the state sectional round where it will take on the Kickapoo Chiefs – a team the Tigers matched up with back on Sept. 8 in a 3-0 loss. With the rematch looming on Tuesday, Davidson is making sure to soak in one of the biggest wins in program history before getting back to work.
“We were just worried about this one,” Davidson said. “We’ll kind of celebrate, take this in for a day or so and then we’ll get back to thinking about what’s going on Tuesday. Right now, this is as special as it gets.”
