Five Cazenovia-area soccer players were part of winning efforts during the US Youth Soccer Region 1 Championships that took place during the July 4 holiday weekend in Barboursville, West Virginia.
In the Under-16 Girls division, the Syracuse Development Academy 99/00 prevailed. They had already won the State Cup Championship earlier this summer, and now went to West Virginia with a roster that included Cazenovia natives Saige Ackermann, Casey Crawford, Jamie Joseph and Kirsten Underwood.
Playing in Group D, SDA won twice and earned a draw, defeating Freehold Celtic (South Carolina) 4-0 and routing Delaware Rush 6-0 while playing Nordic 16 (Connecticut) to a 0-0 stalemate.
Having advanced to the semifinals, SDA rallied to prevail, 2-1, over Arsenal FC of Pennsylvania Premier Pride in that round. Crawford hit on the tying goal late in the first half, her fourth of the tournament, and teammate Sidney Reeves hit the game-winner late in the second half.
This set up the final between SDA and the FC Pennsylvania Strikers. Unlike the semifinal, it was SDA starting fast, with Marissa Greiner (East Syracuse Minoa) scoring four minutes into the game and then Underwood converting just 10 minutes later.
Underwood’s goal proved the game-winner. The Strikers got on the board with Sage Magruder’s goal midway through the second half, but SDA held on for another 2-1 victory, advancing to the US Youth Soccer National Championships that take place July 26-31 in Frisco, Texas.
But it’s not just girls Cazenovia soccer stars headed for the Lone Star State. Logan Comfort is going, too, after helping SDA’s Under-13 boys team, coached by Jukka Masalin (assistant coach at Syracuse University), win its division in that same US Youth Soccer Region 1 tournament.
Also assigned to Group D, Comfort’s SDA side won all three of its pool matches, topping Rams FC Arsenal (Rhode Island) and Fury (West Virginia) by equal 5-0 margins and then pulling out a 2-1 decision over Century V Gold (Pennsylvania).
In a close semifinal, SDA rode Boaz Ben Yehuda’s goal to a 1-0 victory over Arlington Barca Red (Virginia). Then, in the championship match, SDA had to face another team from Upstate New York, Empire United Soccer Academy of Rochester, a rematch of the New York West State Tournament final that Empire had won a few weeks earlier.
Here, though, SDA won 3-0, with Francesco Pagano’s goal at the four-minute mark setting the tone as Griffin Seeber and Jeorgio Kocevski added second-half tallies. Comfort, as he had done throughout the tournament, had a steady performance from his outside back spot.