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The No. 1 Oak Mountain Eagles started their journey to a second-straight state title with four goals in the first half to defeat the No. 7 Thompson Warriors in the first round. (For the Reporter/Kelsea Schafer)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles took an important first step toward repeating as Class 7A champions and securing the national championship as they took down the No. 7 Thompson Warriors in an all-county first-round matchup.

The Eagles defeated Thompson 6-0 on Monday, April 28 at Oak Mountain High School, extending their unbeaten run to 58 matches in a row and continuing their perfect 2025 season.

“We’ve been on a mission all year to get back to the Final Four, and this was step one of it,” Oak Mountain coach David DiPiazza said. “So, I’m really proud of the guys and I think it was a complete effort by everyone in the team.”
Oak Mountain dominated possession early and often in the half, winning possession before the ball even got out of the midfield to set up frequent attacking possessions.

The Eagles needed just three minutes to break through. They sent an initial effort into the box that the Thompson keeper saved, but the effort was strong enough that it spilled out to Roy Soldevilla, who buried the rebound for the 1-0 lead.

Sam Collins kept the momentum going with a pair of chances, first a missed low free kick in the sixth minute and then a deep shot in the 10th minute that went wide right.

Michael Dennis then barely missed a header off a Will Farley cross in the 14th minute, but he wouldn’t miss his mark twice.

Just a minute later, he made an unmarked run to the far post and was ready for a through ball on the ground from the opposite wing, burying the ball into the empty net to double the lead.

After a few missed chances on a scramble in the 16th minute, the next 10 minutes were mostly quiet before Farley tested the Warriors keeper with a cross that was deflected over there in the 26th minute.

Collins very nearly had the third at the half-hour mark after he made a touch-and-go run down the right flank before smashing the ball into the right post from point-blank range.

Two minutes later, Sam Laney helped the Eagles get back on the scoreboard. He sent a cross in to Luke Jovanovich, who sat in front of the goal ready to send the shot home for the 3-0 lead.

Mere seconds afterwards, Jovanovich created another goal, this time by finding Gabe Capocci on the left side of the box. Capocci rifled the shot into the back of the net to make it 4-0 win the 33rd minute, and that lead held through the halftime break.

The Warriors started to fight back throughout the second half, earning a breakaway chance in the 43rd minute that set the tone for more frequent runs at the goal down the stretch.

Oak Mountain kept going to the well to find the fifth goal, but it couldn’t secure one in the early minutes. Multiple crosses off breakaways went wide of the trailing attacker, and the Eagles rocketed a few shots high above the goal.

Thompson took a one-touch shot in the 56th minute that sailed with speed over the goal, and the Warriors placed a threatening free kick in front of Owen Wells that he had to clear in the 63rd minute.

Jovanovich then had a strong cross in the 76th minute that forced Thompson’s new goalkeeper Alex Casillas to charge and collect the ball.

The Eagles subbed out Wells after a successful 78-minute shift that included five saves for JV keeper Issac Ruiz, but shortly after, disaster nearly struck off a threatening Thompson breakaway that forced the Oak Mountain defense into action to preserve the clean sheet.

Spurred to action by the near-goal from the Warriors, the Eagles offense worked quickly to put an emphatic capper on the victory.

In the 79th minute, Oak Mountain played a ball for the right wing, and Taylor Hunter was there to send it home for the 5-0 lead. That goal preceded another in the 80th minute by Ben West after he capitalized off a goalkeeping mistake to bury the ball and seal the 6-0 win with two goals in as many minutes.

In all, six different goalscorers found the back of the net for the Eagles in Soldevilla, Dennis, Jovanovich, Capocci, Hunter and West. Jovanovich and Hunter each finished with a goal and an assist while Gerardo Rodriguez, Grant Naumann and Laney had an assist each.

Collins led the way with seven shots and three on target, and Capocci and Soldevilla each had a goal off three shots apiece.

In all, Oak Mountain finished with 23 total shots and 13 shots on goal. DiPiazza was proud of his team for maintaining its offensive identity in the match, but he was particularly proud of his bench players for stepping up and scoring goals as the game went on.

He said that gives him a tremendous amount of confidence in the quality of his squad.

“I think people know when they play us, there’s going to be a relentless amount of pressure,” DiPiazza said. “I think like one of the big things is, with 14 minutes left in the half, we took our basically three (attackers) and maybe an attacking mid out and we scored two goals with the guys off the bench. So, if we could keep maintaining that kind of pressure with our people on the field and off the field, I think we’re hard to play against.”

The Eagles had many highlights throughout the game against a quality Thompson team that finished the season 15-9-1 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2022. However, DiPiazza stressed multiple areas of improvement to his team after the game.

He was happy overall with the performance, but he wanted his players to understand that they needed to play at their best in the next two weeks to win three more games and a state title.

“When you win, it’s hard. Losing teaches lessons, and when you win, it’s sometimes hard to get to see that, and I think we’re going to go back and we’re going to watch film and we’re going to look at it and see that we could have played better,” DiPiazza said. “I think we created some great chances at the beginning of the half. Good saves, close misses, could have scored a couple of goals there earlier in the half, but we’ve just got to know that this next game that we play on (Friday) night, we’ve got to play for 80 minutes, not 60 minutes.”

That Friday night test will come at home against the winner of the No. 2 Hoover Buccaneers and No. 4 Prattville Lions, who play on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at Prattville High School.

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