Douglas and Carson high school soccer players helped two South Tahoe Futbol Club teams to tournament success this past weekend in Sparks and Phoenix, respectively.
STFC’s Alliance U-17 team, which played one of the top teams in the nation at the inaugural Desert Cup Showcase in Phoenix, went 1-2 overall but defeated Simi Valley Eclipse 2-0 on Saturday. Simi Valley is ranked No. 11 in CalSouth, and the win was the best win for any Northern Nevada club team in its age group in recent memory. Douglas sophomore McKenna Kynett scored the game’s opening goal in the first half, then Douglas junior Silvia Fernstrom completed the scoring with a left-footed blast in the second half.
On Sunday STFC played Sereno SC, the defending Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) national champions, and battled the Phoenix-based team to a respectable 3-0 loss. Sereno, which has 12 players committed to Division I schools, scored the game’s first goal five minutes before halftime, then added two more in the second half. Carson sophomore goalie Sam Bishop made several saves against Sereno, which is entirely made up of true U-17 players.
The Alliance is comprised of players from South Tahoe, Whittell, Douglas, Carson and Galena high schools, and is coached by Lake Tahoe Community College head coach Chris DeLeon and Jeremy Evans, DeLeon’s assistant at LTCC and head coach for South Tahoe High’s varsity team. The newly formed team, which has only been practicing together for less than two months, is currently ranked fourth in Nevada by gotsoccer.com — just behind three Las Vegas-area club teams — and has a mixture of freshmen, sophomores and juniors.
Also in action over the weekend was the STFC Hawks, which has established itself as the top U-15 team in Northern Nevada, but played in the U-16 division in the Sagebrush Start-Up at Golden Eagle Regional Park in Sparks. The Hawks defeated the Sagebrush Lady Nomads, 1-0, in Sunday’s championship game, after defeating Carson and Douglas players helped the team on Saturday in reaching the final.
Carson’s Galilea Cid scored in the team’s 2-1 win over the Sagebrush Chili Pepper’s; Douglas’ Sydney Woodward had strong performances in every game over the weekend, including Sunday’s penalty-kick semifinal win over the Roseville Impulse, a Northern California team that came into the tournament as the age bracket’s highest-ranked gotsoccer.com team.
