Tuesday night in 6A: Jenks beat BK 6-0. Bixby beat Southmoore 4-3. And I think BA beat Putnam North last night but I can't find a verified score.
Union beat Bartlesville 2-0. The weird thing about Bartlesville is they have about 7 players who have played together since they were 11 years old on the NEOFC '06 team. They are technically sound and they have a good understanding of the game, they just don't have the straight up speed that teams like Union have. Bartlesville is really good in the air and really dangerous on set pieces in and around the box. Union's 1st goal was pretty, some nice passing in the 18 to find an open shot. Bartlesville keeper had a nice game making some really crazy clutch saves otherwise this game could have gotten out of hand. Union got a MF back who hadn't been academically eligible yet this year until this week and he made a huge difference. Really really good with the ball at his feet, tight control, and an ability to see the field and make the right distributions. 2nd goal for Union came with about 15 minutes left...Union forward, who was clearly offside (by 5 yards) receives a through ball and sprints into the box with the ball and slotted a nice past to the far post for an uncontested tap in. Bartlesville players all come to the ref to protest, coach is screaming his head off, the parents were incensed. Ref walks over to the AR to discuss the play, points to the center to award the goal. Union kid was 5 yards offside from my vantage point. It wasn't a step or close, it was 5 damn yards. But it's hard for an AR to call him offside when he was standing 10 yards away from the back of Bartlesville's defensive line. The guy didn't run a step the entire game. My son said he and his teammates on the bench were talking about how bad he was between his positioning, lack of movement, and improper mechanics. It was weird. And it just shows you how short OSSAA is on quality officials. This is the 2nd varsity match Union has had with an AR who was immobile...they were unable to run. I'm not the fastest but I'm going to run at my full speed to keep up with the play as much as possible. These 2 never moved past slow walk.
On the west side of the state...I can't figure anything out. Everyone is beating everyone.
