YORBA LINDA – On Friday afternoon, Yorba Linda coach Kino Oaxaca pulled out the contracts he drew up during preseason camp and showed them to his boys soccer team.
The time had come to pay up. The signatures were all there, sealing the pact that said the Mustangs would take care of rival Esperanza this season.
“I said, ‘You put it in writing. You told me that this is the game that you wanted to win,” Oaxaca said. “Now, it was time to go out there and win it.”
Thanks to second-half goals from Faraaz Uddin and Cole Taylor, the host Mustangs did just that, edging Esperanza, 3-2, in Friday’s nonleague match.
Moments after Taylor headed in the winner in stoppage time off a long throw-in from Andrew Dirks, the Mustangs swarmed their coach, chanting “Kino, Kino, Kino” as they doused Oaxaca with what little water was left in their bottles.
This was a game, though, that Oaxaca said he hated to play. He coached at Esperanza for 23 years and Esperanza coach Conan Hawkins played for Oaxaca for four years. Oaxaca said Esperanza assistant coach Vodak Hawkins is “like a brother to me.”
Instead of shaking hands with the Esperanza players afterward, Oaxaca greeted each one in line with a big bear hug.
“Inside, I have a lot of respect for Esperanza and the program. They made a lot of things happen for me,” Oaxaca said. “We won CIF and league championships and that is all Esperanza. I love them, and I love the coaches. But I am glad that my kids came out and played today.”
Five minutes into the match, Yorba Linda took a 1-0 lead when Brent Sienko knocked in a throw from Dirks. To celebrate, Sienko sprinted to the bench, exchanging high-fives with his teammates on the bench before ending up in the arms of Mustangs goalkeeper Kevan Rehmani, who stopped two point-blank shots in the second half.
“This game was about pride from school to school,” Oaxaca said.
Tyler DeJianne tied the game twice for the Aztecs (7-5-4). Both goals were scored in similar fashion after he went one-on-one with a defender in the box. On his final goal in the 70th minute, he passed the ball to his non-dominant left foot and wrapped a curling shot around his mark and inside the far post.
“This week was a test to our character. We let games slip away in the last five minutes of the game,” Hawkins said. “But I am proud of the way the kids played.”
Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com