Even after a devastating loss to Drew Charter in the Final Four of the GHSA Class A-Public State Playoffs, Lake Oconee Academy’s soccer team recorded one of its most impressive offensive seasons to date.
According to MaxPreps, the Titans ended their campaign with a program-record, 95 total goals, which is 23 more than their next highest-scoring season.
Head coach Conner Domaleski believes that level of play can continue in future seasons.
“We’re only graduating three seniors this year, and I think people don’t realize that we’re a really young team,” Domaleski said. “At the beginning of the season, I thought we’d have to rebuild, but as we got farther into the season and made a deep run, we realized we’re a really good team.”
A good Titans’ team looked dominant in some of their region matches this year. Out of their 12 regular opponents it faced this season, Lake Oconee Academy was able to mercy-rule five of those teams.
On top of their offensive excellence, Lake Oconee Academy’s freshman keeper Knox van Mol was able to rack up a clean-sheet in nine of 19 matches on the season.
The Titans seemed to dominate all year, but the competition ramped up heading into the playoffs. Domaleski acknowledged that it was the timely moments in those games that fueled the team’s deep playoff run.
“It was a journey. When we played Armuchee, Kyle [Beasley] had a moment that put us through. When we played Atkinson, Kyle put two great goals in, and against Portal we fought back from two goals down to score four unanswered,” Domaleski said. “It was all these little moments that put us in that position.”
Senior midfielder Kyle Beasley definitely helped the Titans in their historic season. He earned GHSA Class-A Player of the Year honors for soccer and played any position his team might need him to play on the pitch.
However, the Titans return most of their starters next year, and Domaleski believes even though next season’s team dynamic will be different, they will still be able to find success.
“This year, we had Kyle and a lot of great supporting players,” Domaleski said. “Next year, all those supporting players won’t have one guy to rely on, and I hope that our collective team efforts will win us games.”
Overall, the Titans ended the year with a 15-4 record after going 12-2 in region play: the best season to date for the program.