Playing Up: U14 Goals

For some reason, the schedule makers gave Emi's U-12 team back-to-back bye weeks. Then, when the weather forecasters predicted thunderstorms in Ada on Saturday, we suspected that Emilio would miss playing for the third week in a row. While disappointing, a cancellation of Emi's noon game in Ada would also help us with our Saturday transportation challenge, since Pablo had a game in Ardmore that was scheduled to start at 10:30. The first news we got on Saturday morning, however, was that Coach Wes needed players for his co-ed team, which was scheduled to play at noon in Ada. Before we had to make a decision about that, though, we learned that all the Ada games had, in fact, been cancelled, and so Pablo and I left to go to Ardmore. We weren't sure that the game would not be rained out, so Mari, Emi and Nina stayed home. Nina had a game in Ardmore at 5:00, and I expected to come back to Ada and take everyone to that game later in the afternoon.

Pablo and I got to Ardmore just in time for his team's game against Madill, and we promptly learned that the Madill team had not, in fact, shown up for the game, though it wasn't actually raining in Ardmore. Madill is half an hour east of Ardmore; Ada is an hour north. All the Adans who had driven down for the game were, understandably, upset with Madill both for cancelling and for not letting us know in advance.

Meanwhile, Tyler Rhynes sent a message to Mari reporting that many of the U14 players were not going to make it to their 1 pm game in Ardmore and wondering if Emilio could play with them. As soon as we got this news, Pablo and I headed straight for Ada to pick up Emilio, Nina, and Mari, and as soon as we picked them up, we headed straight back to Ardmore, where we arrived just in time for kickoff.

As is turned out, the U14 team had two reserves. Fifteen minutes in, Emilio came in for Sam at center forward. Within five minutes, Logan sent a crosser Emilio's way.


Emilio uses one touch to score his first U-14 goal.

Three minutes later, Emi gets loose, demonstrates patience, and scores his second.

By this time, it's a runaway, and Coach Tyler moves Emilio back to "holding mid."

In this second half, Tyler moved Emilio to defense. This was an effective header.