Flores scores twice to cap off victory
McDonald’s Soccer: All-American from Lennox punctuates a crowd-pleasing day at Home Depot Center in Carson.
Animo Leadership’s Richard Flores was not about to let down a personal cheering section of about 50 people applauding his every move at Sunday’s McDonald’s All-American Soccer Game at Home Depot Center.
Though Flores made them sweat it out a bit.
The UCLA-bound Flores scored two late goals in a six-minute span, punctuating a dominating effort by the West All- Stars in a 5-2 victory over the East All-Stars. The girls game finished in a 2-2 tie.
“The important part was helping the team get the victory and to have fun, but it was much nicer that I was able to score,” Flores said. “My family and friends came out, so I had to put a couple in. I wanted to show what I’m going to do at UCLA.”
With fans holding up signs like “Bend It Like Richard” and chanting his name throughout the game, Flores came off the bench, attempted just one shot in his first 27-minute stint of the game and was taken out in the 59 th minute. But Flores was reinserted into the game at the 81-minute mark and showed the explosiveness that enabled him to record 88 goals the last two years for ht school in Lennox.
Flores was given a nice feed from SMU-bound David Gomez of Lake Highlands High in Garland, Texas, and drove to the goal with a defender riding his shoulder. Flores powered it into the goal, giving the West a 4-1 lead.
The East closed the gap to 4-2 two minutes later on a goal by South Florida-bound Rodrigo Hidalgo of Atlantis, Fla., but Flores had one more goal up his sleeve.
Flores got the ball in the 89 th minute, flipped it over a defender and freed himself to fire another goal into the net for the final margin.
Flores normally does his trademark “Shake and Bake” celebration after a goal, but instead he acknowledged his friends, family and teachers by pointing to them and pumping his fist.
“No Shake and Bake today”, Flores said. “I was excited and I wanted to share that moment with my friends and family.”
While Flores patiently wanted to get his chance to play, his West teammates put on quite a show with an array of goals and a healthy dose of boisterous celebrations normally not seen at the high school level. Santa Clara-bound Peter Lowery of Bella Vista High in Fair Oaks, was named MVP.
Ely Allen of Kent Ridge High in Kent, Wash., opened the scoring in the fifth minute. The University of Washington-bound Allen took a pass from Kami Hill of Berkeley High and beat goalkeeper Stephen Sandbo of Columbus, Ohio, for a 1-0 lead. For his celebration, Allen went to the corner flag and imitated using a machine gun to shoot down his teammates, who cooperated by falling flat to the ground.
The UCLA-bound Hill took his turn in the 10 th minute with a chip shot over Sandbo on a pass from Brandon McDonald of Cactus High in Glendale, Ariz., for a 2-0 lead. His celebration: Hill pretended to putt while a teammate lifted the corner flag. Not quite as dramatic, but still fun.
McDonald added a goal in the 47 th minute for a 3-0 lead. McDonald simply slid into a ose for the cameras.
The East broke through with a penalty-kick goal in the 57 th minute by Boston College-bound Charlie Davies of Brooks School in Manchester, H.H. before Flores’ flurry.
“We planned those because we were going back ad forth with the East all week, at practice, in the locker room, everywhere,” Flores said. “We were so confident, we planned what we would do 10 minutes before the game. ‘OK, we’re going to do this on the first goal, the on the second goal.’ We wanted to have fun.”
The girls game ended in a 2-2 tie as University of Washington-bound Dana Johnson of Santa Teresa High in San Jose scored the equalizer for the West on a rebound after a header by Santa Clara-bound Jordan Angeli of Green Mountain High in Lakewood, Colo., barely went astray.
The West girls had taken a 1-0 lead in the 19 th minute on a goal by Stanford-bound Lizzy George of Carondelet High in Alamo. But he East stormed back to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Penn State-bound Sheree Gray of Toms River South High of Toms River South, N.J. and Kia McNeil of Avon High in Avon, Conn.
McNeil, headed to Boston College, beat UCLA-bound goalkeeper Valerie Henderson of Miramonte High in Orinda, in the 63 rd minute and finished as the game MVP.
Publish Date: 6/14/04