Season 13, Game 8: The Night Goal

We had to reschedule a game against Ardmore--the only team in our division that we haven't played this season--because we will be playing a tournament next weekend when we were originally scheduled to play them. The ECU soccer coach told Amber, our team manager, that we could turn on the soccer field lights for a midweek night game, so the game was scheduled for 7 pm on a Tuesday. When we got to the field, however, we learned that only 3/8 of the lights were actually working! It was enough, but as you can see, it was dark.

Emilio started at forward, and Ardmore jumped out to an early lead. A little more than 30 minutes into the game, I am positioned behind the side judge on the darkest corner of the field when the ball makes its way to a shadowy figure at the top of the box. Nineteen seconds into the video below, you can see how that shadowy figure delivers a hard shot which careens off the keeper's mitts and then rolls into the back net. That shadowy figure is Emilio, and his goal evens the score 1-1. That's Emilio's sixth goal of the season.

Not long after that, Coach Tyler moves Emilio to midfield and Sam to forward. Emilio launches a successful through ball, which Sam runs down and then delivers neatly into the net to give us a 2-1 halftime lead.

At the start of the second half, I am in the brightest corner of the field when Mary Ann serves up a free kick that finds Emilio's foot in the box. Coach Tyler was unhappy with Sam's positioning, but Emilio draws the defense to him and then sneaks the ball through a defender's legs to Konner, our left forward, who is calling for the ball. Her kick puts us up 3-1.

Two minutes later, things got weird. The referee stopped play to scold the Ardmore coach for shouting criticisms at him. After that conversation seemed to have ended and the ref was walking back on to the field, the Ardmore coach muttered loudly enough for me to hear him at the other end of the field, "Call it both ways." The ref pivoted back towards him, and the Ardmore coach revised his comment to "Call it both ways please, sir."

Within minutes, the ref gave a red card to one of the Ardmore players for pushing Corbin down. The Ardmore coach started complaining loudly, and the ref called off the game.

Season 13, Game 7: Anudder Mudder

We came into this cold, muddy, rainy Sunday road game rematch against as heavy underdogs against division-leading Midwest City, which beat us soundly earlier this season. So going into half-time tied 1-1 was a huge shock. How did we do it? The biggest factor is that most of our team showed up!

Emilio got some time at forward in the first half but moved to defense in the second half, which is when I took these pictures.

We did not end up winning. But putting a scare into the undefeated Midwesterners felt good, even in the cold wind and rain.

Season 13, Game 6: A Mudder

For the rematch against Harrah, we only had 9 players, and several of our no-shows were our better players. One of the players missing was our center defender, Carl (out with the flu), so Coach Tyler put Emi in the middle of a three-player backline, and kept him there for all but the last five minutes of the game.

Somehow, even though we were down two players, we had a 2-1 at half time.  Sadly, we were unable to hold on to the lead in the second half,

With 15 minutes to play in the game, I realized that I had been "taking pictures" the whole time, much of it in the rain, without a card in my camera! The pictures below are some that I managed to take in the final minutes of the match.

Granddaddy came to the game with us. He requested this shot.

Season 13, Game 5: Goal 5

This rematch against Newcastle started at 4 pm, and the Castles quickly took a 1-0 lead. At 4:15, Coach Jerreld advised the refs that we needed to pause the game because there was lightning on the horizon.

It never rained, and the sun broke through the clouds from time to time, but we ended up waiting for an hour before we restarted.

After play resumed, Emi fought hard for this ball before serving it up to Sam, who neatly tied the game.


Emi's cross finds Gage's shoulder, and we take the lead: 2-1.

Not long after the lead was ours, Jerreld puts Emi on defense.
Yes, that's Emilio's flying cleat, which appears to be just above Colton's head in the shot above.
And that's the cleat, flying high in the photo above. Before Emi had a chance to put his shoe back on, the Castlers brought the ball back into the danger zone. Emi used his sock foot to clear the ball and received an enthusiastic round of applause from the hometown fans.

While the defense was setting up for the corner, Coach Jerreld sent Emilio back to his usual position on the offensive end, where he had time to tie his shoe.

12 minutes later, Emilio scores our last goal of the game.

Ada Soccer Club U16 Equality 5, Newcastle 2.

Season 13, Game 4: Goal 4

On a rare Tuesday night friendly against Durant in Atoka, we fall behind 3-0 in the first half. Then Emilio and Asdrubal work a magisterial combo that turns the tide. Emilio's shoe goes flying after his shot.

Minutes later, Emilio draws a foul, and sets up Sam with an indirect that narrows the score to 3-2 at halftime.

Unfortunately, we were not able to even the score in the second half.

Season 13, Game 3: Relentless

Coach Tyler sent Emilio back to the defensive end early in this match against division-leading Midwest City.

Emi did a good job of slamming the door on the possessions that came into his area.

This sequence of photos shows how one of their attackers got frustrated with Emi's stellar defense play and expressed that frustration with a trip.

To his credit, Emi just keep on playing. No foul was called.

Season 13, Game 2: Goal 3

Emi scored in the first minute of this game against Newcastle, which we ended up winning 5-2.

Season 13, Game 1: Goals 1 and 2

Emi starts as attacking midfielder in the Ada Soccer Club's co-ed U-16 first match of the year against Harrah. The match is played in the rain on the ECU soccer pitch. Emilio makes several excellent through passes to his forwards, but we are behind 2-0 when Coach Tyler calls him to the sideline to take a breather.

I expect that Emi will not see the field again until the second half, but with a few minutes remaining in the first, he goes back in, fields a throw-in, gets a pass back, dribbles past three defenders into the box, and gets off a shot under the left arm of the Harrah keeper. You can't actually see the end of the play very well in the video below because other players blocked my line of sight, but that's the first goal of the season. It was followed by a sloppy chest bump with Carl, that I did not catch.
 

One minute into the second half, Emilio runs down a through ball in the box, gets past the keeper and executes a deadly strike from an acute angle to tie the score, 2-2.
Sam is the first to congratulate Emi, and then Carl and Emi manage the chest bump they flubbed earlier in the game.

Twenty minutes into the second half, with the score 3-3, Tyler moves Emi back to defense, and I take some photos.

The game ends in a 3-3 tie, so we're undefeated!

The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Emilio finished reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes Treasury today. This text--which belonged to me when I was in junior high--includes 1 novel (The Hound of the Baskervilles) and 37 short stories. Before reading these, he read all 3 of the other Sherlock Holmes novels.

1. "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903)
2. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" (1905)
3. "The Adventure of the Second Stain" (1904)
4. "The Red-headed League" (1891)
5. "The Adventure of the Final Problem" (1893)

Earlier this summer, he read several Hercule Poirot mysteries by Agatha Christie (his favorites were: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The ABC Murders, and And Then There Were None), The #1 Ladies Detective Agency, Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters, Death of a Perfect Wife by M. C. Beaton, and Spinning Starlight by R. C. Lewis.

Summer Tuesday in OKC

Mini-golf? Check. Ocean's 8 at the Warren? Check. Earlywine Park walk? Check. Bowling? Check. Pizza in the Paseo district? Check. Successful Tuesday in OKC? Check.