Published: April 22, 2009 04:23 pm      

Ada sweeps Harrah

Bayatfar scores four for soccer girls; Allen stops 16 shots for Drake Daniels' boys team

Ada — Ariel Bayatfar must have missed her teammates when she was attending a state speech meet while the Ada girls soccer team was defeating Capitol Hill 10-0.

She made up for lost time Tuesday night against Harrah.

Bayatfar scored four goals to help host Ada power past Harrah 5-1 for a key District 5A-1 victory. With the win, the Lady Cougars improved to 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the district. More importantly, it appears Ada has secured a playoff berth with the win.

“From everything I see, that locks us into fourth place in the district,” Ada girls head coach Tom Morrison said.

In the boys game, Ada used a heroic effort from Joel Allen in the net to help the Cougars knock off Harrah 1-0.

The Cougars improved to 3-7 and 2-4.

GIRLS

Ada 5, Harrah 1

Kristina Gonzalez also scored a goal for Ada to go with Bayatfar’s hat trick plus one. Stephanie Gutierrez, Brittnay Gandara, Laura Riehart and Jenny Digiulio all had assists.

“What I was really pleased with was where the assists came from — the midfield or defensive end. Our goals were strung together with some great passing,” Morrison said.

Ada out-shot Harrah 26-7 with goalkeeper Kelsy Dowd recording six saves.

“Her saves have really gone down this year because of the effort of our defense, which has been outstanding,” Morrison said. “They’ve really jelled as a defensive unit.”

Leading Ada’s defensive charge against Harrah were Niku Bayatafar (also returnig from a one-game, speech-related absence), Destiny Smith and Samantha Gonzalez.

Morrison was also pleased with the play of midfielders Jenny Digiullio and Cara CLiburn.

“If there is a 50-50 ball situation, we’re going to win it with those two,” he said.

Midfielder Hilary Digiulio also appeared in her second contest of the spring for Ada after missing most of the seaon recovering from a preseason eye injury.

“She played some good minutes at midfielder for us. She’s been missed. She has great field vision and her ball distribution is really good,” Morrison said.

Ada has a huge regular-season finale with Durant at home Friday night. Not only will nine (eight starters) Ada Lady Cougar seniors be recognized during Senior Night activities, but a victory over the rival Lady Lions could secure a home playoff contest for Morrison’s club. Ada could finish as high as second in the loaded district or as low as fourth, depending what else happens around the state.

“It should be a pretty emotional night Friday. Things are always a little more intense when Ada and Durant get together. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to go compete,” Morrison said.

BOYS

Ada 1, Harrah 0

Allen had his best game in the net of the season, recording a whopping 16 saves in the contest as Harrah outshot the Cougars 25-17.

Brooks Thompson scored on a second-half penalty kick for the lone goal of the contest.

“We played a lot better than we have in the past. I am very pleased by the way we hung in there,” Ada head coach Drake Daniels said.

Offensive standouts for Ada included Adrian Medrano, Conner Mayhue, Joel Barrick, Seth Windsor, Michael Osfak, Thompson and newcomer Kyle Burris.

Defensive leaders for the Cougars were Ryan Smith, Brady Dowd, Scotty Bowers and Alex Aultman.