Boys soccer: Isaac Spencer scores hat trick as Oberlin beats Brookside

SHEFFIELD — A rainy, drizzly night at Dick Sevits Stadium didn't dampen things one bit for the Oberlin High boys soccer team.A first career hat trick by junior midfielder Isaac Spencer and a pair of goals by freshman midfielder/forward Mateo Nemes propelled visiting Oberlin to a 6-0 victory over Brookside.The win lifted Oberlin's record to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Lorain County League as the Phoenix recorded its second straight shutout to open the season. Brookside's record slipped to 1-1 and 0-1.Senior midfielder/forward Tiago Ramos-Reilly ignited things for Oberlin as he scored from 15 yards out from the left side just 3:49 into the game. He converted a feed from Spencer. Nemes followed with his two goals, scoring at 15:15 and :28 of the first half. Nemes' second goal was especially pretty as he converted a feed from junior defender/midfielder Brandon Locke after Locke took a pass from Ramos-Reilly on an indirect free kick.Brookside applied better pressure, marking Oberlin to begin the second half, but the Phoenix's passing slowly wore down the Cardinals.Spencer scored his first goal at 19:22 of the second half off a feed from Ramos-Reilly. He then connected in back-to-back situations just 30 seconds apart, first at 5:52 from freshman Noah Feldman and again at 5:22 from senior John McMillion-Jarven, who started the game in goal but switched to midfield with 19:32 left when he was relieved by sophomore Evan Lehman."The way we play, the passing just made them tired and in the end they really couldn't stop us," Spencer said. "The main thing was the passing. They really couldn't sustain anything against us. We had most of the possession time during the game so they weren't able to create as many chances. And in the end we just finished our chances."Our second-half strategy was much the same as the first 40 minutes. Same strategy, the same idea — just cross the ball, finish our chances."Nemes' play in the first half was especially critical, particularly his second goal of the game which came just 28 seconds before halftime."Those were my first two goals of the season," he said. "This was a nice win for us. It's going to be a strong season for us. Passing and maintaining the ball was a big key tonight. Moving forward we just need to keep playing strong with a good mentality."The Oberlin win was its fourth straight over Brookside dating back to 2023. The Phoenix swept both meetings with the Cardinals in 2024 (3-2 and 5-2). The teams split in 2023, with Brookside winning the first matchup 2-0 and Oberlin taking the second 2-1."We played well. We were put together," Oberlin fourth-year coach Yvan Thornhill said. "We moved the ball well. Nobody played with the ball for too long, which is a goal — to keep the ball moving instead of people moving the ball. It opens up the field. All of them stuck to the plan pretty well and it produced results. We're hoping it's going to keep producing results."Oberlin finished 11-6-2 and 7-3-2 for third place in the LCL last year after going 4-14 and 3-7, 2-14-1 and 2-6 and 2-11-1 and 1-6-1 in the previous seasons."We started off building when I first got here and I think we're building well and continue to build," Thornhill said. "I think this season will be better than last year. We've improved every year."The play of Reilly-Ramos on Wednesday night continues to be a key. Reilly-Ramos scored four goals in Oberlin's 6-0 win over visiting Independence on Aug. 16.It was a tough setback for Brookside after a nice 5-2 win over Sandusky in the season opener behind a hat trick by freshman Parker Gabet."We've got a lot of young guys," Brookside fourth-year coach Chris Adkins said. "We have 22 guys, which is the most we've had in years, 17 of which are either freshmen or sophomores. That's a lot of guys playing first-time soccer or getting used to high school soccer."We talked about the thin margins of good high school soccer. You can't miss shots when you have opportunities to score or you can't let balls fly through your body and give them opportunities to score."Brookside finished 5-10-2 and 4-7-1 in the LCL for fifth in the league last year. That was on the heels of 6-10 and 4-6 records in 2023 and 7-9-1 and 3-5 marks in 2022."We'll just continue to learn and grow and get better," Adkins said. "That's what I told them. It's game No. 2 of the season. There's a long way to go. We played them tough in spurts. We did a lot of good things. We just have to put it altogether."Freshman Grayson Holowenko did a nice job in goal for Brookside, making 10 saves."When you have a player like Tiago (Ramos-Reilly) in the middle, he's a huge difference-maker. Just having him as that presence for them is huge," Adkins said. "They've got a lot of good players, too, obviously. We've got to try and match that. We just need to try and grow as the season moves along and put some experience behind it. They're getting better at practice every day. They work very hard. I have no doubt we're going to continue to grind away and get better."Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.GOALS: (O) Isaac Spencer 3, Mateo Nemes 2, Tiago Ramos-Reilly.ASSISTS: (O) Ramos-Reilly 2, Spencer, Brandon Locke, Noah Feldman and John McMillion-JarvenSHOTS ON GOAL: Oberlin 21, Brookside 15.SAVES: (O) McMillion-Jarven and Evan Lehman 10. (B) Grayson Holowenko 10.PENALTY/FREE KICKS: Oberlin 2, Brookside 2.CORNER KICKS: Oberlin 2, Brookside 2.YELLOW CARDS: None.HALFTIME: Oberlin, 3-0.