By Mike Stechschulte
Junior – Oxford High School
A 3-3-1 record is not the way the Oxford Wildcats had intended to start their season, but a big win against the Romeo Bulldogs has them going in the right direction. The Wildcats, who had only been under .500 once before in their 4-year existence when they lost their opening game to Linden last season, found themselves in a hole entering this week.
After two disappointing losses to division rivals Lapeer West and Linden, the Wildcats had hoped to right their sinking ship against Fenton, but fell to the Tigers by a score of 6-2. According to head coach Jeff Wolanin, the Cats played a good game, even outshooting their opponents, but luck was not on their side as they fell to 0-3 in the league, and a 2-3-1 overall record.
On Dec. 13, however, the Wildcats stole one from the heavily favored Romeo Bulldogs, coming up big in a 6-5 winning effort despite being outshot 43-26. In the first period, Oxford came out strong, getting out to a surprising 3-0 lead on goals by Sean Degler (2), and Zach Clark. Mike Stechschulte made 9 saves in the period, broke his stick early in the period and was forced to use backup goalie Brian Beaupied’s for the remainder of the game.
That momentum carried partway into the second period, when JT Anderson scored 1:17 into the period. Romeo then added their first tally of the game two minutes later on a breakaway attempt. Oxford’s Sean Degler answered right back, scoring his third goal for a hat trick with assists from Nick Roop and JT Anderson.
Romeo then caught fire, outshooting Oxford 22-4 in the second period, and scoring three unanswered goals to cut Oxford’s lead to 5-4.
Then the referees were forced to work for their money, as penalties dominated the game. The two teams racked up 26 penalty minutes combined in the third period, but amazingly, neither team could capitalize on many powerplay opportunities. The period was scoreless until Romeo scored on a breakaway with just 1:20 remaining in the game.
With the game knotted at 5-5, and just when it seemed that Romeo had sealed the tie, Oxford’s Rob Szczepankowski came through in the clutch, scoring the game-winning goal on the powerplay with 31 seconds remaining.
Several Oxford players recorded multi-point games, including Degler (3 goals, 1 assist), Anderson (1 goal, 3 assists), and Szczepankowski (1 goal, 2 assists). Oxford goalie Stechschulte also made 38 saves for his 2nd win of the year.
Oxford’s next game will be Dec. 17 against the Brandon Blackhawks. Game time will be 7:15, and will be played at the Wildcat’s home rink, the Lapeer Polar Palace.
Mike Stechschulte is a junior at Oxford High School who plans to major in the field of journalism.