BOYS SOCCER: Odessa High takes down previously-undefeated Wolfforth Frenship to start district competition

The Odessa High boys soccer team had heard a lot of good things about Wolfforth Frenship.

Ahead of the teams’ District 2-6A opener against each other Friday night at Ratliff Stadium, the Bronchos knew that the Tigers had an unblemished record and didn’t plan on losing it any time soon.

Odessa High had a plan of its own however and executed it to end Wolfforth Frenship’s perfect run.

The Bronchos downed the Tigers 3-0 with a goal from senior Jona Ruhlander and two tallies from Alan Rubio.

“It just feels amazing. We played great as a team,” Rubio said. “I think it’s the beginning of a great (district) season.”

The victory brings the Bronchos’ win streak to five games. Odessa High (9-6-1 overall, 1-0-0-0 District 2-6A, three points) has also won seven of its last eight games.

“A lot of these kids were playing JV last year and now they know that they can do it,” Odessa High head coach Eliseo Ortiz said about his team. “It’s just that belief system, just them having faith in their skills and their abilities, because they have it. And this is what that win does.”

Both teams started the game cautiously. As the clock approached closer to halftime, the action started to pick up.

Odessa High broke the deadlock 26 minutes in when sophomore Cain Cordova danced around a few defenders with the ball at his feet and took a shot that forced a diving save from Wolfforth Frenship goalkeeper Braxton Thorne. Ruhlander beat a few Tigers’ defenders to the rebound and slotted it into the open net for the eventual game-winner.

The impact from younger players such as Cordova, Rubio and Brandon Bernal has given the Bronchos more confidence at the beginning of district play than it has had in any previous season under Ortiz.

“They don’t play like sophomores or whatever, they play like high school varsity kids,” Ortiz said. “I’m just proud of a lot of things that went right and most importantly that they fought against a really good team … we just found a way to win.”

Emotions ran on high for most of the game, resulting in six yellow cards and one red card being shown in the contest.

Cordova channeled those sentiments and turned his play up a few notches in the second half.

“Our team gave him an opportunity to be one-on-one, so we found ways to find him and he just took care of the rest … we’re just proud of the work that he did,” Ortiz said. “We ask him whenever he has the opportunity to create something.”

That’s exactly what he did throughout the game. In the 68th minute, Cordova raced past two Wolfforth Frenship (14-1-0, 0-1-0-0, zero points) defenders and drew the foul that led to the Bronchos’ second goal.

“We knew what we were dealing with and we just came out and showed up and played tonight,” Cordova said.

Rubio scored both of his goals in the game’s final 11 minutes, including the game’s last goal with 14 seconds left in regulation to put an exclamation point on Odessa High’s district-opening performance.

“Alan is one of those kids that maybe lacked a little bit of confidence, but we always pushed him because we knew what he could do,” Ortiz said of Rubio. “I’m proud of him, came off the bench and scored two goals.”

Odessa High looks to stay atop the district standings when it returns to action at home Tuesday against Amarillo Tascosa.

{{tncms-inline account=”EricBlumOA” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BOYS SOCCER: Odessa High takes a 2-0 lead over Wolfforth Frenship on this Alan Rubio goal. 11 minutes left in the game. <a href="https://t.co/4S11TmeSN1">pic.twitter.com/4S11TmeSN1</a></p>— Eric Blum (@EricBlumOA) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricBlumOA/status/962161083388715009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”962161083388715009″ type=”twitter”}}