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Diego Ibarra (10) works to control the ball during the Madill game against Durant. The Wildcats defended the Lions 4 to 2 in an extremely physical rival game. Glenn Price • The Madill Record
Madill was the better team in the non-district game at Paul Laird Field in Durant on March 10 night as they outscored their rival 4-2 to win the heated game.
This brought the Madill Wildcats season record to 3-0 and dropped Durant to a 2-1 season record.
Durant had six fouls in the first half while Madill only had one infraction called on them. Madill had four corner kicks and Durant only had one. This is indicative of how Madill controlled the game and outplayed Durant.
Madill Head Coach Jose Cortes over confidence on the Wildcat side allowed Durant to score.
“We dominated the entire game,” said Cortes. “But after we were up 3-0, we got complacent.”
Madill scored first with 22:24 left in the first half as Diego Ibarra nailed a penalty kick after a Madill player was tripped in the penalty box to give Madill a 1-0 lead.
It was less than two minutes later when Francisco Perez took a pass from Ibarra and hit a 35-yard bullet of a shot past the Durant goalkeeper to bring the score to 2-0 and it remained there at halftime.
Perez scored his second goal of the game with 30:15 left in the second half to give Madill a 3-0 lead but Durant made things a little dicey as they scored two goals, one at 20:42 and the next with about 16 minutes left in the game to bring the score to 3-2, Madill.
But Madill recovered their intensity and with less than a minute left in the game Ibarra scored his second goal to put the game away 4-2.
Cortes noted the two goals that Durant scored within just a few minutes time snapped the Wildcats back into aggressive play.
“The two goals back-to-back woke us up,” said Cortes. “It was closer than it should have been. Our goalkeeper, Ulyses Camacho continues to make special saves. He is an excellent keeper and some colleges have shown interest in him.”
The head coach said even though their next few games will be tough, they are not backing down.
“Our next game is against Harrah, our District home opener,” said Cortes.
“I expect that Bethany and Ada will be the teams that we will compete with for the district title. We always have tough games against Ada, no matter what their record is.”
It was a big win for Madill to go into Durant and get a solid win against the Lions. Madill had lost to Durant in 2018 and 2019 by scores of 2-1 and 4-0 respectively. The last time Madill boys had beaten Durant was in 2017 when they won 1-0. Madill is averaging scoring just under four goals per game and has given up only one goal per game in the three games they have played so far this season. Two of those games were against 5A schools. The important district games start March 24 at home against Harrah.