COPA OYE

Copa OYE got off to a thrilling start Saturday. A sunny and warm day greeted the hoard of fans who packed the stands for the opening ceremonies. The festivities began with the selection process as all 9 men’s teams and six females teams were selected to their respective groups. OYE men’s team joined a strong Chelsea team from Perla high school and a relative unknown team in Valencia in Group A. Group B is comprised of Cristo Rey, Barcelona and Perla. Group C is made up of San Alberto Imperial and Real Madrid. The Women’s side had OYE placed in group A joined by Perla and Alianza. Group B was comprised of River, Norte Dame and Atlas.

The opening game of the tournament had OYE play Chelsea that would prove to be a extremely well played game. OYE jumped out to an early lead behind the boisterous OYE supporters. However Chelsea quickly fought back by capitalizing on mistakes by OYE on their half of the field. The game continued to seesaw, as OYE was able to take a narrow 6-5 half time lead. Chelsea came out strong in the 2^nd half and seemed to slowly take control of the game by going up by 2 goals. However OYE responded led by Vicente Rivera’s scoring and was able to take the lead for good. The final score was 11-8 but was much closer then the score suggests. Vincente’s eight goals as well as two by Gustavo Vega led OYE. The defense was led by the strong play of Ronald in the goal. Next up for OYE men is an April 17^th game versus Valencia at 2:00pm. Stay tuned for pictures and the women’s results.

-Bart McIntosh