Games Five and Six, Wins Four and Five, Goals Five and Six

Thirty-two minutes into the third U16 game of the season, Asher boots a through-ball to Emilio, who takes advantage of the break-away to put the first score on the board.


Three minutes later, Emi gets loose again, and we're up 2-0.

Shortly after Emilio scored this goal, Coach Rhynes took Emilio out.

We went into halftime with a 4-0 lead and finished on top, 5-0, to improve the team's record to 3-0.

A couple of hours later, Emilio and I headed to North Oklahoma City, for a U19 game. Emilio started at forward.

Coming into the game,  North OKC is one of only three teams in the league that had not been defeated, with a tie against a Stillwater team that has 4 victories with 31 goals scored against 4 goals allowed.

In the 22nd minute, Phillip scores a header off of a great throw-in by Taylor, and we take a surprising 1-0 lead.

In the 38th minute, with the score now 1-1, Phillip chases a ball into the corner and centers it. 

Just as the keeper is about the collect the ball, Emilio crashes in to disrupt the play, and after he puts his toe on the ball a second time, a desperate defender's attempt to clear the ball comes straight to Sam who fires off a clean shot that puts us back on top, 2-1.

Two minutes later (minute 40), Sam heads another throw-in by Taylor and a twisting Emilio almost manages to direct it into the goal before the keeper intercepts it.

One minute after that (minute 41) Emilio, in the midfield, delivers a beautiful through ball to Isaiah.

.

Unfortunately, Isaiah is not able to get off a shot.

A minute later (in minute 41), Sam escapes through traffic and send a neat ball with his dominant left boot to the far corner, and we're up 3-1.

Three minutes after that (in minute 44), Phillip escapes down the left sideline and uses his own dominant left book to put us up by a shocking 4-1 margin at halftime.

In the 75th minute, with the score a tighter 4-2, Taylor executes maneuvers through a pair of defenders and launches a powerful strike from the right side of the goal, to increase our margin back to a more comfortable 5-2.

Six minutes later, in 81st minute, with the score 5-3, Emilio and Jonah execute a fine give-and-go that ends with a volley by Emilio that flies just high of the goal.

Four minutes after that, Phillip gets loose on the left sideline and delivers the final goal that will give us a 6-3 upset victory. 

The photos below were taken by Tyler Byrd's mother, Tammy.

Game Four, Win Three, Goals Three and Four

A week ago, we hoped Emi would get a U19 home game against Ardmore followed by a U16 game at Shawnee, but for unknown reasons, the Ardmore game was canceled.

The first U16 game of the season was against Shawnee United. This game was against the Shawnee Razors. It was over eighty degrees when game started at 3:30.

This was the starting lineup:

Keeper: Ben
Defensive line, left to right: Dalton, Zeke, Tyler Taylor, Tristan
Holding mid: Noah
Midfield, left to right: Caden, Emilio, Michael

Forwards, left and right: Augustin, Bryce.

Also playing: Bennett, Tyler Walker, Hayden, Asher, and Devon.

In the first five minutes of the game, the Razors went up 2-0.

In the midfield, Emilio handled the ball masterfully and delivered skillful passes (see video below, taken 6 minutes in).

A minute later, he's doing it again.

In minute 8, he chases a ball into the left corner and delivers a backward, over-the-head pass that finds a teammate's foot, but doesn't get from there to the net.

After an own goal that put us in a 2 goal hole, Emilio takes the kickoff and does this:

To review:  after receiving a kickoff in the 15th minute, Emilio tries taking it all the way himself. Do we give him credit for eluding 5 defenders or 7 before he launches a hard kick, collects the rebound off the keeper's mitts, and sends the ball into the net for our first score?  Either way, it is one of his all-time great plays.

A minute later, Emilio weaves down the right sideline and is fouled near the corner of the penalty box.  He later reported to me that he was disappointed play was stopped because he thought he had a chance to go all the way.

Twelve more minutes pass before he makes another run down the right sideline and passes to Noah in the penalty box. Noah backheels to Bryce, who quickly gets off a shot that is blocked by an alert keeper.

One minute later, Emi tries a backheel to Noah that just misses the mark.

Emi handled all of the corner kicks and served the box flawlessly.  In the 29th minute, when he got his only chance to take the middle on a corner, he headed directly on frame, but the Razor keeper kept his net clean.

In the 38th minute, Zeke launches a beautiful through ball, and Emilio makes a run.

After Emilio's left footer finds the far corner, we go into halftime tied 2-2.

In the second half,  a gassed Emilio stays at forward, but doesn't get much action. 

In the 49th minute, Augie scores on an assist from Tyler Walker to put us up 3-2.

Four minutes later, a hard crosser from Michael on the right wing produces an own goal.

The Razors score one of their own to narrow the margin to 4-3.

Then, in the 65th minute, Emilio steals the ball, feeds Michael a through that puts us up by 2 again, and Coach Tyler moves Emilio back to center mid.

In the final minutes, Noah scores on a masterful through ball from Augie that produces the final margin of victory: 6-3.

Emilio now has 4 goals and 2 assists on the season and his teams have a 3-1 record.

Game Three, Win Two

A week ago, we thought Emi would get two home games this weekend. Then we learned that while the U16 game would be in Ada, the U19 game would be in Chickasha.

Then, on Thursday, we learned that our opponent forfeited the U16 game.  And we also learned that although we can have 22 on our U19 roster, we can only have 18 players in uniform for a game

So the U16s who have been invited to play with the U19s will only get to suit up if some of the U19s cannot.

So we went from having two home games, to have no games at all.

Then, on Friday, we learned that some of the U19s would not be able to attend the game in Chickasha, and Emilio would get to play after all.

The U19 game against Lawton,  on a neutral field in Chickasha, was scheduled to start at 6 PM, so we suspected that meant they would have lights. We were wrong about that. There were lights, but they were not turned on. Instead, we got a 5-minute halftime, and the end of the game was played in something close to the dark.

This was the starting lineup:

Keeper: Colton
Defensive line, left to right: Sam, Cameron, Korbin, Josiah.
Midfield (6--holding; 7; 8--attacking): Jose, Taylor, Isaiah;

Forwards (9--middle, 10--left; 11--right): Emilio, Phillip, Jonah.

Also playing: Jesus, Augie, Cameron, Jose, Saul.

Emilio rotated out after 15 minutes and then rotated back in at right forward after another 15 minutes. He got fouled in the box (a shin kick--see video below), but it was not called.

The half ended in a 0-0 tie.

The same group that started the first half started the second half.

Emilio got fouled in the box (a flagrant push down . . . that was not called--see video below) and rotated out after 5 minutes.

With 20 minutes to go, and the score tied 0-0, Coach Vaughn sent Emi in at Center Mid.

The score is still 0-0 with about seven minutes to go in the game when Emilio intercepts a pass on the defensive end and deftly left-foots it forward to Isaiah. After Isaiah briefly loses possession of the ball, Taylor sends a through-ball forward to Philip who chases it down, takes control, and fires a shot on goal.

Phillip's shot is blocked by a sliding keeper, but Sam collects the rebound and uses his off-foot to send it to the back of the net for an exciting first score of the game. 

The remaining five minutes are high drama, especially for those on the defensive end, but we keep the sheet clean and even our season record 1-1.

Next week, there is supposed to a U19 home game against Ardmore followed by a U16 road game at Shawnee, but who knows?!?

Update From the Ada News, 10/9/2020:

Ada U19 soccer team slides past Legends

By Jeff Cali | Sports Editor

CHICKASHA — The El Rayo Ada 19U soccer team opened its 2020 season with a 1-0 win over the host Chickasha Legends last weekend.

The only goal of the game came from Ada’s Sam Rhynes with just over five minutes to play to swipe the victory.

The goal occurred when Philip Jones took a shot and the Chickasha goalkeeper deflected it into the path of [Rhynes] who sent the ball into the back of the net.

“Sam is an incredible talent that can play any position on the field,” said head coach Josh Vaughn. “Sam spent most of the game helping to anchor the defense and keep (the Legends) pinned in their own half of the field. Late in the game with the score still 0-0, the coaching staff decided it was all or nothing. They put Rhynes at the forward position, along with Jones and Byrd, playing for a decisive goal and it paid off.”

Vaughn said the Ada soccer club physically dominated the Chickasha Legends (made up mostly of players from Lawton) for the full 90 minutes in the U19 game.

“Ada midfielder Taylor Byrd led the physicality. He enforced his will and fought for every blade of grass on the entire field,” Vaughn said.

“He has a fire burning inside him all the time, and he shows it every time he plays a soccer game.”

Byrd led the team in tackles and interceptions.

Vaughn said Byrd got plenty of help.

“The whole team played very well. Every player on the roster contributed to the win in some way,” he said. “Every player that suited up got playing time, and they won as a team.”

Vaughn said Korbin Rhodes and Cameron Nichols (Center Backs) also had strong outings for the El Rayo squad.

“Every time the Legends were able to break Ada’s smothering, pressing defense, Rhodes and Nichols were there to shut them down. Rhodes even had two saves, after Ada goalkeeper Colton [Scull] got caught out of goal attempting to break up an attack,” he said.

Vaughn said midfielders Jose Palma and Isiah Castenada
also played well for the Ada squad.

“We just want to make sure the players understand they
didn’t play well because they are great. They played well
 because of great effort,” Vaughn said.

The El Rayo Ada roster is made up of mostly players that
attend Ada City Schools with a few players from surrounding
communities. Ada returns to action at 10:30 a.m. Saturday
against rival Ardmore at the Ada Boys and Girls Club
soccer field.

Season 16, Games One and Two: Goals One and Two

Emilio didn't get to play soccer last spring because of the Covid-19 pandemic (all games were canceled), and there weren't any soccer camps this summer for the same reason.  But practices started a few weeks ago. The only pandemic alteration I've seen is that the team does not put their hands together in the middle of a huddle for a practice-ending cheer. So far, we have seen no evidence of viral spread.

Ada has enough players for a U-19 boys team and a U-16 boys team. Though Emilio is 14, coach Rhynes has encouraged him to play on the U-19 team (with new coach Vaughn) and to join the U-16 team  (which coach Rhynes coaches) only when its games do not conflict with the U-19 games.

The first game of the season was in Duncan. Because the uniforms had not come in yet, our team wore pennies over white shirts.  We had 20 players, which is a big group.  Not all of them have been attending practices.

This was the starting lineup:

Keeper: Colton
Defensive line, left to right: Philip, Korbin, Dani, Eric
Midfield (6--holding; 7; 8--attacking): Taylor, Jesus, Sam

Forwards (9--middle, 10--left; 11--right): Augustin, Emilio, Caden (these three are also all eligible for U16)

Also playing: Minh, Isaiah, Cameron, Jonah, Jose, Saul, Asher, Landen, and Josiah.

The team name is: El Rayo.

We fell behind 2-0 within the first five minutes and were down 3-0 at half. Emilio didn't get many chances, came out after 15 minutes, went in for another five minutes in the midfield and then came out again, but at half-time Taylor commended him for his effort.

In the second half, coach Vaughn moved Taylor from holding mid to forward, and he scored to get us on the board.

Playing forward, Emilio delivers an assist to set up our second score of the game. The video below begins with a trip (though no penalty was called). Emilio goes down but gets back up, chases the defender to the baseline, steals the ball, chases it to the corner and then executes a magisterial fake. He convinces the defender that he's going to cross, but instead sneaks down the endline and chips the ball into the box, where Isaiah sends it to the back of the net.

We are outscored by one goal in the second half (4-3) and if you leave out the first five minutes of the game, we were outscored by only one goal in the first half (1-0). These are encouraging signs against a powerful Duncan team.

After the game, the traveling Ruiz-Bentons (Pablo stayed home) hit up a Taco Casa for a dine-in-the-van lunch, and headed back to Ada for Emilio's U-16 game against Shawnee at 5 pm.

This was the starting lineup for that game (we think): 

Keeper: Ben
Defensive line, left to right:  Tyler Taylor, Michael, Zeke, Dalton
Holding mid: Noah
Midfield (left, center, right): Dylan, Emilio, Bryce

Forwards (left, right): Augustin, Caden

Also playing: Tyler Walker, Bennett, Hayden

Noah wears #10 for the U16s, and Emilio was given jersey #6 for this season. The team name is "Desperados."

Emilio started the game at center mid and delivered some masterful passes and through-balls, but we ended the first half down 1-0.

For the start of the second half, Coach Rhynes moved Tyler Walker to center mid (he was late for the start of the game), moved Michael to right mid, and moved Emilio to right forward.

Thirty seconds later, we tie the score after Michael sends two perfect passes Emilio's way.

Less than a minute later, Emilio scores again after Michael serves up another perfectly placed through ball, and Emilio collects a hard shot that the keeper had deflected. 

Ten minutes later, Emilio delivers a soft through to Bryce that is disallowed because of an offsides call (which I don't see).  The pass is still worth noting.

Bryce later scores a clean goal to put us up 3-1, and Coach Rhynes pulls Augustin, Caden, and Emilio. With minutes left in the game, Shawnee pulls to within one, and Emilio goes back in at holding mid. We end the game with a 3-2 victory.

We're looking forward to next week:  two home games!

Emi is on Facebook

*October update: Emilio is only technically on Facebook. He is clearly Generation Snapchat.

Curls' Last Ride

Black Lives Matter March in Ada

More than 1,000 turned out for Ada's Black Lives Matter March, including everyone at our house who was not at a pre-planned birthday party (Pablo). Nina walked with Mari. I walked with Emi. It was very hot, and at the end of the walk, Nina briefly lost her vision and had to sit down.

We were shocked and pleased by the turnout. Rumors circulated earlier than the day that White Terrorists had come into town and were lurking aroudn Main Street, threatening violence. Another (more spurious) rumor was that "outsiders" who were likely to cause trouble had been bused into town. In any event, the march was peaceful.

We kneeled for 48 seconds to commemorate the 48 seconds that Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on George Floyd's neck.