Rockwall's Ben Padilla (Red) scores during Saturday's Northeast Texas FCA Heart of a Champion All-Star soccer game on the Tyler Legacy High School campus.

Although the matches were called due to lightning in the area, there were still smiles from the players competing in the Fourth Northeast Texas Fellowship of Christian Athletes Heart of a Champion All-Star Soccer games on Saturday.

The games, presented by Landmark Title, Inc., were moved to earlier in the day after the forecast of thunderstorms in the area. Both the boys and girls games were started simultaneously on the fields at Tyler Legacy High School campus at 12:30 p.m. After about 16 minutes of play, the games were delayed by a lightning strike in the area. After another lightning strike and reports of bad weather in the area the games were called.

Both Red teams were leading 1-0 when the matches were canceled.

“It is disappointing, but at least we got 15 minutes of the game in,” Robert Bardin, Northeast Texas FCA Chapter Director, said. “But when you look at the whole scope of this weekend, the game is icing on the cake in all honesty. What they got to do yesterday and last night — they met many new people and got to hear about Jesus. Obviously we would have loved to have gotten the game in today, but man can’t control the weather.”

In the girls game, Kaydee Cox, of Lindale, scored the goal with 21:44 on the clock. Cox, the Most Valuable Player of District 14-4A soccer, has signed to play in college at The University of Houston-Victoria.

Joining Cox on the Red All-Stars were Maddie Carlile, Maddi Cummings and Chloe Howard of Bullard; Zoe Spencer and Kipton Travis of Carthage; Brooke Everest, Brooke Tweedell and Kaniyah Hill of Lindale; Judith Lopez of Mesquite; Yvette Cordova and Alexa Resendiz of Mesquite Horn; Tanley Coykendall and Avery Shipman of Rockwall; Kyleigh D’Spain, Chloe Murlin and Caroline Randall of Tyler Legacy; and Avery Green of Van.

Coaches for the Red were Megan Coppedge (Mesquite Horn), Tiffany Cooksey (Bullard) and Cody Bray (Lindale).

Blue All-Stars were Shania Miller of Chapel Hill; Meg Cowart, Lauren Etheredge and Rylee Ratliff of Grace Community; Lezmailin Hernandez of Kemp; Samantha Rodriguez of Kilgore; Jasmine Bates of Paris; Katie Balderas and Miranda Countryman of Rockwall; Peyton Childress of Sabine; Ella Rose Embry, Conally Hooper, Elizabeth Randall and Hannah Smith of Tyler Legacy; and Jennifer Gurrusquieta, Madison Hawkins, Raylee Rios and Gabrielle Thompson of Whitehouse.

Coaches for the Blue were Kendra Lockett (Nacogdoches) and Chris Hemphill (Grace Community).

In the boys game, two former District 10-6A foes hooked up for the score. Ben Padilla of Rockwall scored the goal off an assist from Tyler Legacy’s Nathan Tozetto.

Joining Padilla, who will be playing at Oral Roberts University, and Tozetto, who will be playing at Tyler Junior College, on the Red team were Ty Arroyo of Athens; Austin Hudgins of Grace Community; Roberto Munoz Jr. of Jacksonville; Griffin Cook and Luke Johnson of Lindale; Jared Zuniga and Alejandro Flores of Longview; Jose Rangel of Paris; David Beltran and Collin Clark of Rockwall; Nash Aziz and Adam Hamad of Rockwall; and Landon Bravo and Noe Robles of Tyler Legacy.

Coaches for the Red were Tony Bowles (Rockwall) and Jay Campos (Sunnyvale).

Blue All-Stars were Jacob Whatley of Carthage; Edwin Jimenez of Forney; Trevon Bowie of Grace Community; Alex Rubio of Kaufman; Tony Kiel and Juanito Vargas of Marshall; James Olvera II of North Forney; Andy Garcia and Ty Carnes of Palestine; Joset Gonzalez of Paris; Aaron Bocanegra and Edgar Bocanegra of Pine Tree; Camden Childress of Sabine; Edgar Salazar of Sulphur Springs; Isac Mojica of Tyler; Christian Baxter of Tyler Legacy; and Mark Garcia, Luke Neely and Nathan Uduojie of Whitehouse.

Coaches for the Blue were Anthony Randle (Marshall) and Austin Walker (Forney).

Despite the shorten games, much was gained in two days of the gathering of the all-stars and Barbin is hopeful FCA had an impact.

“I hope they understand there is an absolute purpose for their life,” Bardin said. “… That their identity is not in a sport. For many of them they have been playing soccer since they were four or five years old so it is easy for them to think that is who I am. We want them to take away from this weekend is that your identity is found in Jesus Christ and He is the one who has a purpose and a plan.”

Bardin had a special mention of Joey and Caitlin Petrich, the game directors, for their hard work of putting the games together. The two are the FCA College Directors.

Also, Angel Rocha of Pine Tree was the consultant for both games.

The first weekend of FCA All-Stars included baseball, softball and football.

Bardin said he has had calls about including basketball and volleyball, but more volunteers are needed to conduct the games.

If anyone is interested in helping or sponsoring, call (903) 752-9339, email (rbardin@fca.org) or visit https://www.netxfca.org.

The NETX FCA Leadership team includes Bardin, Barbara Bardin (administrative assistant), Darlene Taylor (assistant), Jeff Lee (Longview area representative), Caitlin Petrich (College Campus representative), Joey Petrich (College Campus representative) and Butch Smith (Van Zandt County area representative).

The NETX FCA Board includes: chairman Dr. Paul Roberts, Gary Adams, Nancy Cavender, Dr. Jon-Michael Cline, Meredith Grant, Pat Hargrave, Brad Harvey, Justin Jenkins, Jim Rapp and Judy Stewart.