Development Academy: Baltimore Bays Chelsea back on track after impressive wins
By Jimmy LaRoue
Baltimore Bays Chelsea was looking to get back on track in Development Academy play after tough losses to D.C. United and did so with a pair of impressive wins Saturday against Virginia Rush at the Hampton Roads Sports Complex.
Bays’ U-18s (4-2-0) dominated in an 8-0 win against Rush (0-4-1), with Jacori Hayes starting things out with a brace inside 30 minutes. Moja Hale scored the first of his three goals just before halftime, and then Yaw Amankwa scored the first of his two goals four minutes into the second half.
Ernest Williams got on the scoresheet for Bays in the 62nd minute, with Hale and Amankwa getting their second, each, in the next seven minutes before Hale closed out his hat-trick in the 88th minute to provide for the final margin.
Amankwa has a team high six goals on the season.
The U-16 matchup between the two teams was closer, but Bays pulled away with three goals in a seven minute span of the second half for a 3-0 win.
Herber Beltran got on the board for Bays (5-1-0) with a 64th minute goals, with Matthew Bautista scoring a minute later and Kelvin Davis, Jr. adding a goal in the 72nd minute in his Bays debut, previously captaining Freestate Diplomats through earlier this year and a member of Bowie High School’s 4A State Champions squad in 2011, for the final margin to stay within one game of undefeated D.C. United, who were off this past weekend. Rush falls to 1-4-0 with the loss.
In Sunday’s matches, McLean Youth Soccer split a pair of games with PA Classics at Spring Hill Park, with its U-16s holding on for a 1-0 win over PA Classics, and its U-18s falling by the same, 1-0 margin.
In the U-16 matchup, after a scoreless first half, McLean’s William Metzler scored his team-high fourth goal of the season and then held on to eke out the win. The win moves McLean to 2-5-0 on the season, while PA Classics, with a chance to keep pace with Bays and move into a second place tie, fell to 4-3-0 and a third-place tie with FC DELCO (4-1-0) on points.
In the U-18 matchup, PA Classics (5-1-1) got an early, 14th minute goal from Zachary Herstek, which proved to be enough in its 1-0 win over McLean and allowed it to stay on top in points over a tightly-packed Atlantic Division, with McLean (4-2-1) and idle D.C. United (4-1-1) tied on points with 13 in second, and Players Development Academy (4-0-0) and Bays tied for third.
The Richmond Kickers U-18s (3-2-2), though, are within striking distance after a 3-1 win over Potomac (0-6-1), still looking for its first win of the season.
The Kickers’ U-16s (0-7-0) are still winless after a 5-0 loss to Potomac (1-4-1), which won for the first time this season. Four first half goals paved the way for Potomac, including two goals from Ronald Ventura (16th, 68th minutes), his second and third goals of the season, as well as goals from Abdulai Turay (15th minute), Thomas Bernhardt-Lanier (30th minute) and Matt Danilack (33rd minute).
