By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOOVER – Oak Mountain and Hoover were set to meet for the third time this season on April 6, but after eight minutes and 19 seconds of action at Oak Mountain High School, the game was delayed and inevitably called due to weather, and rescheduled for the next night. Due to poor field conditions at Oak Mountain, the third meeting was also moved to Hoover.

Each meeting between the two has been tight, and the third match was no different. After tying 1-1 in the first meeting on Feb. 13 in the Lakeshore Shootout, Oak Mountain got the best of Hoover the second time around via a 2-0 final, the first meeting between the two that counted in area play. Little separated the two in the third match as well, but in the end the Eagles squeezed out a 1-0 win to move to 16-0-2 on the year and 4-0 in area play.

“I thought we did good, that was our first game back from spring break, I think we played well,” Oak Mountain head coach Daniel DeMasters said of his teams’ performance. “Hoover is a good defensive team. The last two times we’ve played them the game has been decided by set plays, we’ve scored on a free kick and two PKs. The free kicks are making the difference, and they’ve fallen in our favor.”

The game, which started with 31:41 left on the clock in the first half due to the eight minutes and change the two had played the night before, was tight from the start. Both Oak Mountain and Hoover had a look at goal in the opening two minutes before both teams truly settled in to the flow of the game. Cole Williams had Hoover’s best look at goal in the 23^rd minute of the first half, but nothing came of the chance. A minute later, Oak Mountain’s Jackson Murphy was taken down in the Hoover box, setting up a penalty kick opportunity, which senior captain Hunter Holstad calmly pumped into the back of the Bucs’ net, giving the Eagles a 1-0 advantage.

Later in the second half, Chad Jeter played a beautiful ball into the Hoover box off a free kick chance, but was subsequently denied. The second half was largely a game of cat and mouse, as neither team had much to work with offensively. With 10 seconds left in the match, Hoover had a corner kick chance to tie the game, but after a scramble, the ball was cleared, giving Oak Mountain the 1-0 win and the area crown.

Both Oak Mountain and Hoover will most likely advance to the playoffs out of Area 5, and the chance is high that the two will meet in the second round of the playoffs. DeMasters believes this Hoover team presents potentially the largest threat to his Eagles repeating as 7A state champions.

“They’re probably the best team on paper that we’re going to face,” DeMasters said of Hoover. “I’ve always been a fan of theirs and respect them a lot. It’s going to be a battle.”