Oakton Meets Little Resistance in First Round of Regionals

After winning their first-ever Concorde District title, the Oakton Cougars looked like postseason veterans Wednesday. Emma Rouse scored twice in the first eight minutes, and Caroline Coyer added a goal and two assists as the Cougars made it look easy in a 6-1 win over Edison in the first round of the Northern Region tournament.

The Cougars will take on Woodson, 3-0 winners over Madison, in the second round. Those teams haven’t met since the first round of regionals in 2009, when Oakton prevailed 3-2 en route to a trip to an appearance in the finals.

Alex Meyers, Kristi Carrigan and Lexie Krall also added goals for the Cougars. Susie Scott scored the Eagles lone goal. Despite the lopsided score, head coach Kasey Davenport still had a mission to improve as a team.

“Our goal was to get better today,” Davenport said. “We can get better in any game, and that was our focus. We scored goals, we worked together [and therefore] we did it.”

Rouse opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Coyer’s cross was popped high in the air. Edison’s keeper Olivia Herder couldn’t get underneath the ball in time, and Rouse snuck behind her and headed it into the back of the net. She struck again in the eighth minute when she got free on a breakaway down the right sideline and put a low angle shot just inside the far post.

That proved to be all the offense the Cougars needed, but they weren’t done yet. Erin Holden’s shot in the 10th minute came off Herder’s hands, and Meyers was there to finish. Three minutes later, a similar situation occurred when Krall took the ball nearly the length of the field down the left sideline. Her shot was also initially blocked, but no one picked up Carrigan, who easily put home another goal.

The Eagles finally found reason to celebrate in the 29th minute when Scott caught Oakton keeper Alex Weaver playing too far up and popped the ball over her head and into the net on one bounce. The goal was just the eighth allowed all season, and ended a streak of four straight shutouts that spanned the end of the regular season and the entire Concorde District tournament.

The festivities were cut short though, as Coyer made it 5-1 with her own hard angling shot from the deep right side of the box. The Villanova basketball recruit nearly added another a minute later when her strike went just high, but factored in Oakton’s final goal of the day when she set up Krall. Oakton was able to go to its bench for much of the second half, even moving Weaver to the field, where she earned at least two quality opportunities to score.

Since joining the once moribund program as an assistant in 2009, head coach Davenport has helped lead a . Oakton suffered through 10 losses in 2006 before consecutive 6-8 seasons that both ended in the first round of the district tournament. Oakton overhauled its coaching staff the following year, and the results were immediate. The team won 24 games over the next two seasons and qualified for the state tournament in 2009, and took home its first district title with a 1-0 win over Westfield last week.

In Woodson, the Cougars meet another defensively dominant team. The Cavaliers allowed only seven goals all year, although their lone loss came 1-0 against Robinson. Oakton drew even with the Rams in the regular season before claiming a 1-0 victory in a rematch in the first round of the district tournament. Davenport isn’t concerned with who the next opponent is, perhaps rightfully so considering the Cougars’ success this year.

“We’re going to focus on us,” Davenport said. “We’re going to do what we need to do, and we’ll be OK.”