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Oak Mountain’s unbeaten run of 60 matches ended in the Class 7A state championship to a spirited effort from Montgomery Academy. (Reporter Photos/Alec Etheredge)

(Reporter Photo/Andrew Simonson)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HUNTSVILLE – Any notion that Saturday, May 10 would be a coronation for the Oak Mountain Eagles’ second-straight state championship and a national championship didn’t take long to be dispelled.

Just nine minutes into the Class 7A state championship game, the Montgomery Academy Eagles struck with the opening goal, putting Oak Mountain down for just the fourth time this season and second time this week.

A minute later, any notion that MA was undeserving of the lead was also dispelled.

Montgomery Academy scored an emphatic second goal off the counterattack to take a 2-0 lead, setting the stage for a complete performance that saw the No. 8 team in 7A upset the No. 1 team in America 2-1 for the state title at John Hunt Park in Huntsville.

The result ended a historic run of 60 games without a loss from OMHS, but in the end, they fell at the exact same venue where they took their last loss in the 2023 Final Four.

“They’re crushed,” Oak Mountain coach David DiPiazza said. “Not just because the game itself, but we’ve got 16 boys that aren’t going to play soccer anymore. I guess you’ve got four or five going to play in college, but for a lot of these guys, they’re not going to play soccer again. And more importantly, they’re not going to play soccer with each other. So, I think it was going to be an emotional day whether we won or lost because it was the end of an incredible journey for these 16 seniors.”

The result capped a challenging week for Oak Mountain after conceding a 1-0 lead to Prattville on Monday in the quarterfinals before allowing Grissom back into the semifinals on Thursday with a drop in form in the second half.

Despite those recent results, OMHS looked to put those behind it and face a red-hot MA team fresh off an emotional shootout win over Fairhope. Montgomery Academy had gone 13-2-1 since the Wiregrass Cup, where it was shorthanded due to a state title run in basketball and lost 5-0 to Oak Mountain.

Oak Mountain pressed the attack right out of the gate and got an early free kick from Sam Collins along with multiple possessions in the attacking third.

However, MA held strong and mounted an emphatic response.

A chaotic scramble in front of the net in the ninth minute provided enough mayhem for Ethan Yi to fire home a shot off the keeper’s mitts and go up 1-0 on what was credited as an own goal.

The lead proved to be no fluke as a minute later, after an OMHS free kick hit the post, Montgomery Academy pushed up the pitch and won a one-on-one counterattack duel with Owen Wells. Cade Seagars tapped the ball into the open goal to take a 2-0 lead, leaving the traveling Oak Mountain fans stunned.

The physicality only ramped up over the rest of the half with both teams challenging the ball with abandon. The bad luck continued for OMHS when it hit the woodwork again in the 16th minute before a player got taken down in the box with no penalty call.

Oak Mountain continued testing the goal in the final 10 minutes of the half. Gerardo Rodriguez had a shot across goal in the 30th minute saved before he took a deep shot in the 36th minute that the keeper pushed over the crossbar for a goal kick.

One of OMHS’ best chances of the game happened in the 38th minute when, for the third time in the half, the offense hit the post. This time, it was Roy Soldevilla’s effort that struck the right post.

Gabe Capocci then had a shot go right of the goal in the final seconds of the half to head into the locker room with a 2-0 deficit.

After Oak Mountain was late coming out of the locker room, Montgomery Academy went straight to work in the 41st minute with another counterattack, but this time, the shot missed.

Rodriguez then had a shot saved in the 45th minute as OMHS worked to shift the tide in its favor.

The momentum massively shifted in the 55th minute when MA committed a handball foul in the box. That brought Oak Mountain to the penalty spot, but instead of Soldevilla taking it like he was originally set up to do, Nate Taylor swapped in at the last second.

The mind games paid off as the long-haired senior fired a rocket off the keeper’s mitt and into the goal to cut the deficit to 2-1.

That sent a shot of energy into the traveling OMHS supporters and the players, but they could not capitalize on the momentum as Jovanovich’s left-wing cross in the 56th minute was saved.

Then, in the 59th minute, a chaotic cluster of players from both teams in the box led to Soldevilla scoring a goal. However, the center official waved it off after he deemed Soldevilla shoved the opposing Montgomery Academy player, which caused an uproar of protest from the Oak Mountain dugout.

Rodriguez then took a one-touch run in the 62nd minute before firing off a shot across goal in one of the better efforts of the half.

MA amassed two yellow cards in three minutes, the latter of which was a tackle just outside the box in the 69th minute. The ensuing free kick was blocked for a corner, which was caught by the keeper after Capocci took it, negating both chances.

After the Montgomery Academy keeper slid to meet a Jovanovich run, it fired off a close-range shot in the 71st minute. Oak Mountain didn’t have many threatening chances in the final minutes as MA finished off the 2-1 upset victory to claim the state title.

After the game, DiPiazza gave credit to MA and said the result was more off of what they did to disrupt his team than anything OMHS did or didn’t do.

He said his team hadn’t faced that good of a counterattack all season and that Montgomery Academy played to that strength to be the better team on the day.

“That was tough to deal with,” DiPiazza said of the MA counterattack. “It’s just playing against players of that ability that are that dangerous on the counter, they did what they needed to do to win. They did a great job of it.”

Despite losing the longest unbeaten streak in Alabama soccer history on the doorstep of winning state and national titles, DiPiazza is proud of his players for what they have accomplished on and off the pitch during their historic two-year run.

While their on-field accomplishments are among the best in state history, he hopes the legacy of his 16 seniors and 24 players will instead be the people they were inside the halls of OMHS.

“What we’ve done statistically is great, but I’m more proud of what these guys have done as human beings,” DiPiazza said. “Yeah, they’ve had a great four years on the field, but they’ve grown as men, and they’re incredible student-athletes and they’re incredible people. I’m way more proud of that than any of our records and accomplishments, and that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to tell them this whole time.”

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