Tuesday, April 14, 2015

2015 Season Highlights: Warriors Four-Peat as District Champions


Winter Park.  That’s it.  When answering the question as to how many OCPS schools in the Metro Conference, East or West, have ever won four district titles in a row, Winter Park was the only answer.  Not anymore.  Following an 18-6 victory in the district championship final against rival Olympia, the West Orange Warriors now join the Wildcats as the only OCPS schools to ever achieve four-peat status
.
It wasn't easy; because if it was, more schools would have done it.

West Orange wasn't always the most dominant team in its district.  Following back-to-back district titles in 2006 and 2007, the Warriors would go on to drop four-straight title games.  The first was to Ocoee.  The next three were to Apopka by a combined total of five goals. 

Then the 2012 squad stepped onto the field and emerged as one of the most dominant teams in school history.  Not only did the 2012 team set the foundation for the Warriors’ historic title run, they laid waste to previous district offenders; dismantling Apopka and Ocoee by a combined score of 42-1.
As other programs within the district struggled to keep pace with the growth of West Orange, the Warriors rarely ran into difficulty in its trek towards four-straight championships.

In 2015, the Warriors had their most difficult regular-season district match-up on the road against East Ridge, holding on to a 15-9 victory.  Despite being the Warriors’ toughest competition, the Knights earned the no. 4 seed and faced WO in the district semi-final.  West Orange erased any doubt from the regular season and sent East Ridge home for the season with a 17-2 victory.

The championship game matched the Warriors up with rival Olympia.  The regular season game was a heated affair that was a close, 9-6, contest heading into halftime.  In second half the Warriors exploded for 17 goals, setting a new record with 26 goals scored in a game.  Olympia committed 12 illegal hits to the head against West Orange throughout the entirety of that game, amassing 17 minutes of penalties. 


Knowing the Titans were looking to avenge the regular season loss, the Warriors were prepared for yet another tough match-up.  However, West Orange was able to take control of the game early and never allowed Olympia to mount any kind of run in the first half, taking the wind out of the Titans’ title hopes.  In the end, it was a decisive 18-6 victory for the Warriors, and a historic four-straight district title.

No comments:

Post a Comment