WAGS Tournament: Sunday roundup from showcase action at Evergreen Sportsplex
By Kevin Smith
LEESBURG, Va. — This weekend’s earliest WAGS Tournament games at the newly minted and still incomplete Evergreen Sportsplex in Leesburg started under the spectre of rain, the same rain that has plagued the region for roughly the last half week. While the complex isn’t yet finished – plans are in place for a grandstand with locker rooms and a press box, as well as two other buildings – the fields were ready to go, in spite of the weather.
“We had no standing water on any of the fields,” said Jennifer DiCenzo, the sportsplex’s director of marketing and communications. “This has been a good test of the fields [in terms of drainage]”.
Sunday’s action on Field No. 1 kicked off with a closely battled match in the Girls’ Under-17 Showcase division between the No. 1-ranked team in the nation (according to GotSoccer), Tom’s River FC Elite United (N.J.), and the 22nd-ranked FASA Elite Impact out of Fredericksburg, Va., with Tom’s River winning by a final score of 1-0. Even with one of the nation’s top-ranked defenders in Halle Parker, FASA coach Pete Cinalli’s squad was unable to hold back Tom’s River. Cinalli noted that his team made a mistake and Tom’s River took advantage, noting, “that’s what great teams do. And that’s an excellent team, clearly.”
In the other games on field one, Virginia’s VSA Heat Blue dropped their contest with the Yardley Makefield Soccer YMS Premier Wildcats in the U-17 Showcase by a final of 1-0; PWSI Courage Red defeated the New York Rush Patriots by a score of 2-0 in a chippy, physical U-16 Showcase game; and field one saw the Leaside Sanjaxx Lions (Canada) on the wrong side of one of the most lopsided games of the day as they lost 4-0 to McLean MPS Force Green in a U-17 match.
On Field No. 2, which hosted three U-16 matches, Tampa Bay United Premier failed to get on the board against the MRM Rush Coyotes (Md.), who topped the Florida team 2-0 in one of those U-16 showcases. In the only U-17 match on the second field, South Jersey United came up empty in a 1-0loss to locally-based Potomac Hotspur. In the remaining two matches on field two, Concorde Fire Concord Fire Elite and Super Nova FC finished up knotted at 1-1, and Haverford Premier dropped their match to FC Virginia ECNL 2-0 cin a pair of U16 match-ups.
On field three a pair of U-17 matchups saw PSC Baltimore drop a close one to United German Hungarians Fevernova by a final of 2-1, and PWSI Courage Red (Va.) topped Manhattan SC Hotspur 1-nil. In the subsequent two U16 matches on that field, the Council Rock United FC Bucks Freedom ECNL topped ABGC FC Virginia United East by a score of 3-0, and the Richmond Kickers YSC Elite finished their matched in a 1-1 tie with the Burlington Youth Burlington Bayhawks out of Canada.
Like field three, field four hosted two U-16 and U-17 contests. In the first two, both U-17s, damp spectators watched the New York Rush Patriots double up Real Shore Lakewood FC Black Magic out of New Jersey by a score of 4-2, and then FC Europa Storm and FC Virginia ECNL finished their game nil-nil. In the U-16 games Massapequa SC – NPL Crush topped the Braden River Rage Maroon by a final of 2-0, and Princeton Premier SA Orange closed out the day with a 2-0 victory over Penn Legacy FC Black.
