WAGS: Pinecrest’s run of form stopped by New York squad
By Charles Boehm
ARLINGTON, Va. — South Florida Under-15 team Pinecrest Premier 98/99 Blue rolled into the WAGS Tournament on an eight-game unbeaten streak in FSPL (Florida state league) play and looked primed for a peak performance in their opening game of the weekend against New York’s Quickstrike 99S.
But after a tightly-contested opening to the match, Quickstrike broke through with 
an opening goal that propelled them to a 3-0 win that left their Floridian adversaries frustrated – and eager to renew their hopes for the weekend with a better result in their afternoon match against Old Dominion SC Xplosion Elite (Va.).
“We haven’t conceded a goal in our last four games, so I thought that we would’ve been in a better position to turn the result around,” Pinecrest coach Ramiro Vengoechea told SoccerWire.com. “But things didn’t go our way and it kind of went downhill after we conceded the second goal. But hopefully we can still turn it around in the second and third game.”
Vengoechea was disappointed to see Quickstrike’s high-pressure tactics – “winning second balls and just putting balls into the channels and having their forwards run onto it,” he said – cause his team such trouble.
“Yeah, we’re a little bit more used to teams that want to play a little more possession-based soccer,” he said. “We don’t necessarily do well against teams that do that against us, they disrupt our style…But we’ve dealt with it before.”
But it does underline the value of events like the WAGS Tournament, which exposes participants to new styles and unfamiliar opponents from other parts of the country – even if losses sting a bit more knowing that college recruiters might be watching.
“We’ve identified certain showcases to come and give the girls an opportunity for a good path towards college recruitment, and this one is on our circuit,” said Vengoechea. “We’re trying to get into all the top tournaments and compete at the highest levels so we can give these girls an opportunity to go to college.”
