On Friday September 5th, Oakland University’s men’s soccer team held their home opener against the Michigan Wolverines.
The Golden Grizzlies came into the home opener at 0-2-2, so they needed a win to get some momentum going, especially coming off a season where they were the champions of the Horizon League.
From the introductions of the game, the crowd was excitedly anticipating the potential of their Golden Grizzlies tacking on a win against the Michigan Wolverines — but from kickoff Michigan controlled on both offense and defense.
Oakland played aggressively on offense and defense, leading to penalties for the Golden Grizzlies.
The game went back and forth with a near goal in the 16th minute by the Wolverines and a near goal by the Golden Grizzlies in the 18th minute.
Throughout the first half the offense of the Wolverines was dominant — Oakland could not stop them on defense, but no shots were buried in the net. At the end of the first half, the game was scoreless.
The Wolverines had six shot attempts, and the Golden Grizzlies had three. There were six fouls by Michigan and nine by Oakland.
The second half began with a Wolverine near goal in the 48th minute. The Wolverines were on the attack — they began hunting for goals. Yet the Grizzlies continued to play quite aggressively.
The Wolverines scored their first goal in the 55th minute, and then scored again in the 64th minute, at which point everyone thought the game was over — the Wolverines had dominated thus far.
And then the Golden Grizzlies rushed out of their den on the hunt. The momentum changed when the Wolverines received a yellow card in the 70th minute.
The Golden Grizzlies responded with a charge of adrenaline and scored a goal in the 79th minute by the leg of #17 Christopher Jean Léger, a freshman forward.
The game continued back and forth until 2 yellow cards were presented to both teams in the 85th and 87th minute.
Léger again scored an Oakland goal in the 88th minute to tie the Wolverines at two goals a piece.
The Golden Grizzlies ended in a 2-2 tie with the Wolverines, moving them to 0-2-3.
Oakland can hang their hats on a tie with a top-25 team in the NCAA.
Léger was awarded for his late-game heroics as the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week. He is now tied with Marco Mazzei for the team lead in goals (two) and leads the Golden Grizzlies with shots on goal with five, which places him top ten in the Horizon League.
The Golden Grizzlies will seek their first win at the team’s next home game on Saturday, September 27th at 2 p.m.