News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Aidan Day (6) takes a shot on net during the first half of a soccer game against Oscoda on Monday night at Wildcat Stadium. Day scored six goals to break an Alpena High School single game record set by Mitchell Mead who scored five goals in a game in 2014.

The conditions weren’t ideal, but the weather nor the Oscoda Owls could stop Aidan Day on Monday night as he scored six goals to break the Alpena High School single game scoring record in the Wildcats 8-0 mercy win over Oscoda at Wildcat Stadium.

“I’ve been practicing my entire life for this basically and it’s such a wonderful feeling knowing that after putting my heart into this, I finally got it,” Day said. “I couldn’t have done it without the team and my teammates played such a big part in it and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Six goals in any game is stellar as Day will now be tied for fifth in the state for goals scored in a single game. The weather and field conditions made the milestone even more special as there was a steady rain much of the night, but Day and the Wildcats were determined to keep there strong start to the season going as they have won five of their first six games to open the season.

“It’s one of the best starts Alpena soccer has ever had and it’s certainly the best start during my tenure. We’ve been able to beat some quality teams so far and to be 5-1 after graduating 10 seniors and seven starters, I don’t think anyone would have predicted that including myself,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said. “I told the guys we’ve had a great August and now it’s time to gear up for a special September and possibly an October that one can remember for a long time.”

Alpena dominated the game from start to finish and scored four goals in each half. The Wildcats opened the scoring just under 13 minutes into the game when Day found the back of the net. Three minutes later the Wildcats scored again on a corner kick that went right to Chris O’Neil who put the home team up by two. Day closed out the half scoring two goals in the final 10 minutes to give Alpena a commanding 4-0 lead.

“Aidan came off of a very special weekend where he caught the eye of everyone that was here and he has really turned into a special player. You can definitely see that he is a third year varsity player as a junior and he’s worked hard to improve his game. He’s always been good, but I think now he is taking his game to that next level,” Storch said. “He makes our team go, he’s the engine of our team. He can play both sides of ball because he attacks as well as defends and tonight he was able to do a lot of attacking.”

The Wildcats wasted no time scoring its first goal of the second half just 42 seconds in as Devan Saranen gave Alpena a five goal cushion. Less than 30 seconds later, Day scored his fourth goal of the night and with nearly a half to play, Day realized the record was obtainable.

“I knew after four goals that I was going for the record. I came off the field midway through the half, I asked coach if I could break the record and he thought a little bit and gave me the thumbs up,” Day said. “Once he gave me a few minutes to catch my breath he told me to get out there and from there I just knew I was going to break it.”

Day scored his fifth goal to tie the record on a penalty kick with 16:29 left in the game and put the Wildcats one goal away from ending the game.

With 8:44 on the clock, Day received a pass just to the left of the Oscoda net and fired a low shot that found the back of the net that ended the game and sent the Wildcat soccer team into a frenzy.

“It was such a good feeling being around all of my teammates after scoring the final goal of the game and the record-breaking goal. It’s a wonderful feeling and I’m going to remember that feeling for the rest of my life,” Day said.

Day broke the record set by Mitchell Mead who scored five goals in a game in 2014.

Alpena improves to 5-1 overall with the win and will have some time off before traveling to Tawas next Wednesday.