Soak it to you
- Updated: April 21, 2015
Oxford coach gives seniors ice-bucket treatment after Melendez scores 4 goals in 23 minutes
Ramiro Melendez watches the action unfold on the pitch as the Oxford coaches look on. Melendez scored four goals in the first half Tuesday.
“The last couple years I’ve been going home wet. This year I saw the Igloo cooler open so I said I’m going to reverse it this year.”
– Oxford soccer coach Dwight McDonald
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – Dwight McDonald turned one the world’s greatest sports traditions on its ear Tuesday night when in truth he was going to be off the hook. Never let it be said he doesn’t take advantage of an opportunity.
After any big win or record-breaking performance, it’s typically the coach who gets doused by his players with the water bucket, and great care is taken to make sure it’s done with the utmost stealth.
Well, on this night, it was the Oxford soccer coach who found the bucket and doused his unsuspecting seniors after the Yellow Jackets blanked Jacksonville 5-0 in their final regular-season game.
“The last couple years I’ve been going home wet,” McDonald said. “This year I saw the Igloo cooler open so I said I’m going to reverse it this year.”
So as the seconds wound down, McDonald slid over the bucket, worked his way through a few players and sought out senior midfielder Byron Lin, who got the full force of its icy contents.
“It was quite cold,” Lin said. “We got him ever since my freshman year and we were letting him get off. We were not (going to do it) — we’re not that cruel — but apparently he has a cold heart.”
Senior wing Ramiro Melendez dodged the dousing as deftly as he did defenders in scoring a career-high four goals in the first 23 minutes of the match. Melendez scored less than three minutes into the game – two minutes faster that he scored Monday night – then added three goals in eight minutes midway through the half.
After the fourth goal, all McDonald could do was shake his head. Melendez, a 2013 transfer from Villa Rica, Ga., now has doubled his goal output of a year ago, scoring 13 times.
“He was relentless,” McDonald said.
At that point the Golden Eagles changed keepers and 27 seconds later Lin scored one of his typical long-range goals. It was 5-0 at halftime and stayed that way as McDonald worked in his younger players in the second half to give them experience for next season.
The Yellow Jackets travel to Opelika Saturday for the opening round of the boys Class 6A playoffs.
Donoho 6, Sacred Heart 2
Schuyler Buckner, the team’s only senior, made the most of his final game, scoring twice early in a six-goal first-half uprising that carried the Falcons (7-4) to victory.
Mitchell Baker added a goal and Jake Kaplan, Pitts Angell and Yash Patel each scored their first goals of the season in what was described as the team’s best half of the season. Baker also had two assists.
Trey Nichols and Alex Fernandez scored for Sacred Heart in the second half.
Oxford 5, Jacksonville 0
Jacksonville 0 0 — 0
Oxford 5 0 — 5
GOALS: Ramiro Melendez 4, Byron Lin.
Donoho 6, Sacred Heart 2
Sacred Heart 0 2 — 2
Donoho 6 0 — 6
GOALS: D: Schuyler Buckner 2, Mitchell Baker, Jake Kaplan, Pitts Angell, Yash Patel. SH: Trey Nichols, Alex Fernandez.
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