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