Game 14: Turkey Shootout Showdown

Sunday morning, we left the hotel at 8:15 a.m. for a 9:30 match (Coach Vaughn wants us there an hour early).  Having tied our first two games, we needed a win to advance.

McAlester took at 1-0 lead, but we soon tied them up. 

Emilio took this foul in the penalty box.


Five minutes later, he got kicked in the foot. It hurt, but he got up quickly. No foul was called.
This clever run ended with a header/crosser that fell short of the mark.
Eventually, we fell 3-1, but I think Emilio gained confidence the more he played. And he looked comfortable at right forward.

Game 13: The Turkey Shootout Night Game

After spending our afternoon in our hotel room, we headed back to the soccer pitch for an 8 pm game under the lights against Elk City, which had lost to McAlester 2-1 earlier in the day.

They took a 2-0 lead over us, but again, we managed to tie the game in the 2nd half.

Game 12: Turkey Shootout in Edmond

The Ruiz Benton Five left Ada at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning to head to Edmond for the Turkey Shootout tournament that began with a match against Chickasha at 12:30. Three core members of our team--Saul, Augie, and Jose--were unable to attend because they were being quarantined after having a first-person interaction with a family member who had Coronavirus.

All matches had 35-minute halves (instead of the usual 45). Our first match was against Chickasha, whom we'd beaten 1-0 earlier this season.  Emilio started at holding mid and later got some playing time at forward. He played well.

Play was rough.

Chickasha took at 1-0 lead into halftime. We tied them in the second half. 

Taylor's parents were there taking pictures, and I erased all the non-scoring goals (I posted Phillip's on the team's Facebook page).

After the game, Emilio requested a Green Passion Smoothie from Panera, which we took--along with Panera food for the rest of us--to the Hampton Inn, where we ate in an empty lobby. 

Games 10 and 11: A Memorable Goal (#9 of the season) and a Big Win

The first game of the day is a U16 matchup against an undefeated Chickasha Fusion squad that has scored 33 and given up 0 goals in four games.

11 minutes in, Emilio escapes a defender and launches a quick shot from the top of the box that a fully extended keeper just seems to deflect.


18 minutes later, a Fusion fullback shoves Emi and demonstrates a bit of poor sportsmanship.

We go into halftime down 1-0.

Early in the second, Emilio--now playing in the midfield--evades a defender, escapes down the sideline and sends a crosser to Noah.

Fifteen minutes into the second half, the Fusion have a 2-0 lead when Emilio weaves through the defense and feeds Augie. Augie's shot finds a Fusion defender's hand. The ref spots it, and we are awarded a penalty kick.

There is some discussion among the players about who will take the kick. There are several volunteers. Tyler volunteers. Devon, too. Augie is a candidate. Emilio is a bit sheepish, but Coach Tyler makes the call from the sideline. It's Emilio.

That clean, cool penalty is the first goal scored against the Fusion this season.

Final score:  Ada U16 1, Chickasha Fusion 3.

Next up: a U19 game against an undefeated Stillwater Pioneers team that has 5 wins, and 1 draw, having outscored their opponents 35-6.

The ASC U19 El Rayo, from left to right, first row:  Emilio, Caden, Augie, Dani, Jesus, Jose, Saul, Colton, Cam, and Jonah. Second row: Taylor, Sam, Isaiah, Eric, Landon, Phillip, Min, and Josiah.

Eleven minutes in, Phillip escapes down the left sideline. His crosser is knocked down by the keeper, but Jonah is there to pick up the deflection, which he taps into the net to give El Rayo a 1-0 lead.  That is the score when we go to halftime.

In the first half, Coach Vaughn chose to rest the U16 call-ups--Emilio, Augie, and Caden--because they had just finished playing a game earlier in the day.

Five minutes into the second, Coach Vaughn sends in Emilio.

Not long after, Emilio is filling down the middle when Taylor strikes from an acute angle to increase our lead to 2 (video below).

Four minutes later, Emilio taps a Taylor throw-in to Jonah, who fires a shot that bounces off the keeper's feet and into the goal (video below). We're now up 3-0.

Two minutes later, Jonah gets his head on another Taylor throw-in, and we're up 4-0. Seven minutes after that, Emi collects the ball near midfield and draws a defender to him, leaving Taylor open. Taylor calls for the pass ("Emi! Emi! Emi!"), Emi delivers, and then Taylor maneuvers and fires a shot from the top of the box that puts us up 5-0.
In the closing minutes of the game, Chickasha scores one. Phillip answers with one of his own, and the final score is 6-1. We are now 4-1 on the season, with a victory over the only team that beat us (a week one loss to Duncan).

The photos below were taken by Taylor's parents and by Caden's mom.

And here's the rare shot in which you can see both Emilio and me.
The following story, based on Coach Vaughn's report, appeared in the Ada News on 11/4/2020.

 

Ada 19U team drops Stillwater

By Jeff Cali | Sports Editor STILLWATER — Jonah Ascension scored three goals to help the Ada 19U soccer team vanquish Stillwater 6-1 Sunday afternoon.

“Jonah played a dynamic game, keeping Stillwater on their heels,” said head coach Josh Vaughn.

Taylor Byrd added two goals and had a nifty assist on a 25-yard throw from the out of bounds line all the way to the goal where Ascension headed the ball in for a score.

“Taylor Byrd played a very smart game finding ways to help both the defense and the offense,” Vaughn said.

Phillip Jones capped the scoring with a rocket shot from 20 yards out that hit the post then ricocheted in off the goalkeeper.

“My player of the game, among a lot of good performances, is Jose Palma. He ran every bit of five miles in this game. It seemed like every time a Stillwater player got the ball Jose was there,” Vaughn said. “He comes in tough and is relentless in his defending. Players like Jose are difficult to find and we are lucky to have him.”

Ada improved to 5-0* heading into the Edmond Turkey Shootout Friday and Saturday.

“We are playing really well right now,” Vaughn said.

*We are actually 4-1.

Games 8 and 9: Redemption and Heartbreak

The Duncan Indios have been Ada's nemesis for a long time. They are good. When we played them during the first week of the season, one month ago, they beat us 6-3. Ten minutes into the game, Emilio goes in at forward, charges hard, and leaps over a slide tackle. The photos below were taken by the parents of other team members.

Two minutes later, Sam drives through the center of the Duncan defense and puts us up 1-0.

Emi is still charging hard ten minutes later when he absorbs another slide tackle. 

Three minutes later, Emi makes a great pass to Caden, but the Duncan keeper just manages to thwart Caden's shot.

After Duncan gets on the board to narrow the score to 2-1, Isaiah draws a foul in the box, and Coach Vaughn sends Sam in to take the penalty. He nails it, and we go into the half up 3-1.

In the second half, Emilio gets time at center mid.

Late in the second half, Emilio is not in when Duncan scores and then, moments later, scores again to tie the game 3-3. 

Hoping for a late score, Coach Vaughn sends Emilio in at forward.

In the 88th minute, Taylor launches a hard shot on the goal that the Duncan keeper bats down. Emilio rushes in and back heels the ball towards the net. The ball rebounds off the prone keeper and finds Isaiah, who gets off the shot that puts Ada back up: 4-3. 

In the final minute of play, Emilio is still charging hard when the Duncan keeper trucks him. Never one to lie on the ground, Emilio gets up, the game is over, and the upset win is ours!

Immediately after the game, we head to Midwest City for a U-16 battle against a 4-0 unbeaten that had Avoiding traffic jams on I-40, we make it to the field just before kickoff.

Midwest City had put up 54 goals in their first 4 games and only given up 2, but at halftime, we're down 1-0.

Midway through the 2nd, Noah scores to tie the game 1-1.

One minute after Noah scores, Emilio delivers a cool pass to Caden, whos sails a shot over the post.

Midwest City then goes up 2-1.

Twenty-one minutes later,  with three minutes to go in the game, Emilio delivers a clever pass to Noah, but a Midwest defender rushes in to stymie our last chance at victory.

And so the day ends with heartbreak.

We've got two more games tomorrow.

Game Seven, Win Six, Goals Seven and Eight

After Emilio's game in North Oklahoma City on Saturday concluded before 7 pm, he and I checked in to the Hampton Inn in Edmond. He took a shower, and then we went on a food hunt.  We came back with hummus from two different restaurants, lentil soup, white beans, roasted potatoes, a candy cookie, and oatmeal raisin cookie, a spicy pimento cheese sandwich, a green passion smoothie, and sweet potato sushi (with avocado and artichoke).

We slept in on Sunday, watched the Cowboys implode for a half against the Washington football team, and then drove to Guthrie for Emilio's 3:30 U16 game against Logan County. 

The game did not start promptly at 3:30. But within a minute or two after it did, Emilio is the last ASC player to get his toe on a ball that slowly makes its way through the keeper's legs to give us a 1-0 lead and to give Emilio his first goal.

One minute later, Emilio fields a crosser from Michael and delivers a cleaner score--his second goal of the game, and we're up 2-0.

One minute later, Coach Tyler pulled Emilio out, and he didn't play much more for the rest of the game, and when he did, he did not go back on offense.

We were up 6-0 at half-time, and the ref said that if we got to ten, the game would be called. In the end, we finished on top 8-2, and several players who had not previously scored this season got on the board.

We are now 4-0 on the season. Our next three games, though, will be against teams that are also undefeated.