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The Oak Mountain Eagles finished the game strong with a dominant last 20 minutes as they scored eight goals on the Spain Park Jaguars to remain undefeated. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Oak Mountain Eagles entered their match with the Spain Park Jaguars undefeated and in the top spot in the Class 7A boys soccer rankings, but didn’t have one thing: a road win in area play.

That changed on Tuesday, March 19 as the Eagles cruised to an 8-0 win over their local rival Jags at Spain Park High School.

While the score ended lopsided, the teams remained close in the first half. Oak Mountain scored the opening goal in the first 40 minutes but couldn’t add anything more before the break.

That gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead heading into halftime, but they added many more in the second half.

The opening stretch of the half brought the second Oak Mountain goal of the game before adding two goals in four minutes, including Gabe Capocci’s goal in the 62nd minute to put the Eagles up 4-0.

Two minutes later, Nate Taylor joined the scoring party with a goal of his own, increasing the lead to 5-0 with 16 minutes left.

Oak Mountain kept its foot on the gas and scored again five minutes afterwards. Julian Harrison scored his first of the night in the 69th minute, increasing the lead to 6-0.

Sam Laney also found the back of the net when the junior scored in the 74th minute for his team’s seventh goal of the game.

Not content with just one goal, Harrison polished off the brace with just over a minute left and finished off the 8-0 win.

Harrison and Roy Soldevilla each finished the game with two goals apiece. In all, six different goalscorers found the back of the net as Aidan Riley, Taylor, Capocci and Laney each had a goal.

Sam Collins led the team in assist with three and Capocci, Laney, Gerardo Rodriguez, Harrison Kilgore and Michael Dennis III each earned an assist on the game.

Riley put the most shots on target with four of his five ending up on goal. All three of Capocci’s shots were on target and Harrison, Soldevilla and Collins had two shots on goal each.

Owen Wells walked away with the win in goal after making two saves in a clean sheet performance.

Oak Mountain will look to improve to 4-0 in area play when it travels to Chelsea on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m.

Spain Park is done until after spring break when it will face Vestavia Hills on the road on Wednesday, April 3 at 7 p.m.

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