RSL Florida Advances Four To Final Four

By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 12, 2007

RSL Florida advanced four teams to the Florida Youth Soccer Association State Cup Final Four, with three girls teams and two boys advancing to Fort Myers. The total of four teams leaves RSL tied with Weston for the most teams advanced to the final four ahead of this weekend's under-19 first round.

RSL was led by their boys under-17 squad. Defending their state title, they cruised past Megu Fusion 5-0 in the round of 16 before beating Braden River 1-0 in the quarterfinals. The squad is aiming to repeat as state champions and win its third state title in four years.

RSL's boys under-13 team also advanced to the final four with a 2-0 win against Strictly Soccer in the quarterfinals. They had advanced through to the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win against the New Tampa Comets. RSL general manager Adrian Bush said he thought the level of play of all three teams was high because of the competitive soccer they play year-round in the bay area.

"Those are great teams, their programs are really solid," Bush said of New Tampa and Strictly Soccer. "All three of us are members of the CDL, they already played three times. I think it says a lot about the league that they advanced team this far. "

RSL's girls under-17 squad needed a penalty shootout to advance through 3-2 against Countryside. They had previously won 3-0 against Island FC in the round of 16.

"Countryside is one of the best teams in the country," Bush said. "The training these girls have done to get to this point has paid off. They're extremely fit, and it's a great result for the players. "

RSL also advanced its under-16 team with a 1-0 win against Indialantic Force and a 2-1 win against Pensacola Futbol.

Hillsborough County United also advanced its boys under-18 and under-14 squads to the final four. The HCU under-18's advanced with a 2-0 win against the Renegades Soccer Club despite being reduced to 10 men for the last 30 minutes of the game.

"I was really pleased," HCU general manager Eric Sims said. "In the second game we went down to 10 men with about 30 minutes to go, but got two goals down a man to win 2-0. For some of these guys, it's their fourth year in a row going to the final four, but they've only won it once. I think they're hungry to get back to the Southern Regionals."

The HCU under-14's also advanced to continue their run of success this season. The U-14's beat Jacksonville 4-1 in the round of 16 before defeating FC America 2-1 to advance.

"They're a very talented group," Sims said. "They're a team in every sense of the word. They've been to the finals in the Super-Y league, so they're a talented group with a lot of firepower. I think they've got a great chance to get to the final and win the title."

Also through to the final four are the Valrico Fury girls under-16 team, which beat Inter United 7-1 in the round of 16 and Countryside 1-0 in the quarterfinals.

Freedom Girls Win WFLL Championship

Freedom won its third consecutive West Florida Lacrosse League title with a 9-5 win against St. Petersburg.

Patriots leading scorer Natalie Ray scored four goals in the final, while Arika Hymowitz added a pair of goals.

Sarah Rutherford, Evelyn Costello and Bridget Anderson also found the net for the Patriots.

Players Club Advances To Soccer Final Four

The Players Club of Brandon boys under-16 team advanced to the Florida Youth Soccer Association State Cup final four with a 4-2 overtime win against Orlando FC on Sunday.

T.J Roehn scored twice for the Players Club, including what proved to be the winner. Roehn opened the scoring as well, giving the Players Club a 1-0 halftime lead with a shot that went in off the crossbar.

Orlando came back to take a 2-1 lead, but the Players Club tied the game with less than 10 minutes to play in the game when Oscar Garcia got on the end of a free kick by Domenic Cutrofello. Cutrofello assisted on all four goals for the Players Club.

Roehn added his second of the game five minutes into the first half of the overtime period. After a free kick was only partially cleared by Orlando, Roehn ran onto a ball back into the penalty area and volleyed it into the top left corner of the net. Alex Walters added a fourth goal in the second half of overtime on a header from a long free kick.

"I thought in the first half we had the better of the play," Players Club coach Dale Peterson said. "I was proud of the boys for that fight back to tie the game."

The Temple Terrace Spirit boys under-16's were unable to advance past the round of 16, losing 2-0 to Team Boca.

"I think the heat took a toll," Spirit coach Don Jones said. "We had defenders that were asking to come out. We caught them a couple of times, but they made adjustments. They were the better team."

Hillsborough County United's under-15 boys team advanced to the state quarterfinals, but a poor opening 20 minutes hurt their chances as they fell behind the Clearwater Chargers 3-0 before losing 6-1.

"They are a very good team," HCU coach Kelvin Jones said. "You can't make mistakes against this team, because they will punish you."

Cory Vider had a hat trick for the Chargers, with Anthony Bauman, Ben Sweat and Nick Jones also finding the net. Keith Sierra scored the HCU goal from the penalty spot.

West Florida Lacrosse Awards Announced

The West Florida Lacrosse League has announced its all-league teams, with league champion Plant securing the most places on the team.

Five Panthers were named to the squad, including midfielder of the year Dennis McSweeney and defenseman of the year Nick Albani. Also named to the squad were forwards Garrett German and C.J. Casselli and goalkeeper Zack Jacob.

Jesuit's Evan Olsen was named attackman of the year, and was joined on the team by defenseman Kenny Quinlan. Tigers coach Chris Arnold was named the U.S. Lacrosse person of the year.

Freedom had three players named to the team, forward Andrew Bean, midfielder Ben Watson and defenseman Cam Murphy.

Billy Shatz of Clearwater was named goalkeeper of the year, with St. Petersburg's Frank Collova coach of the year.

Send local youth news to nmurray@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7717.