Wednesday, April 21, 2004

The Sawtooth United U18 girls’ champions at the Portneuf tournament. Front, from left, Danielle Maniere, Rebecca Schwartzenberger, Erin McQueen, Ashley Mardian, Charlotte Gourlay, Kate Elgee, Nicole Carlsen, Danielle Donovan and Cassidy Doucette. Back, from left, Irlande King, Gussi Ochi, Gina Thomas, Ashley Hurley, Jessie Pieschl, Kaylie Aaker and coach Baird Gourlay. Courtesy photo

U18 girls grab
Portneuf soccer title

4-0 record in big tournament

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The Sawtooth United F.C. spring soccer season kicked off this past weekend at the 18th annual Portneuf tournament in Pocatello.

S.U.F.C. teams were mostly slow to start this season with only four of the 11 traveling teams turning in winning record. The weekend had its bright spots, however.

Coach Baird Gourlay’s talented U18 girls’ team went undefeated with a 4-0 record, outscoring its opponents 12-1.

For U18s, Rebecca Schwartzenberger was clearly the MVP with 4 goals overall including two game winners. She was the difference in a 1-0 win over the Twin Falls Rapids, then she scored 2 goals in a 6-0 win over Supernova and one more in the 2-0 title match win against Twin Falls Rapids.

The girls’ goalkeeping was equally stellar with Danielle Donovan and Jessie Pieschl sharing time in the net. When not stopping shots, Donovan also plays the field and had 2 goals, one coming in Sunday’s championship match.

Anchoring the defense were sweeper Gina Thomas ("awesome play," said Gourlay), Lexie Praggastis, Ashley Hurley, Ashley Mardian and Danielle Maniere, who was "phenomenal at left back," the coach said.

Midfielders Kate Elgee and Erin McQueen also had tremendous weekends.

Despite the winning weekend, the U18 girls did suffer a tough loss to injury when Lexie Praggastis dislocated her elbow in the opening 15 minutes of the championship match.

Praggastis was "the reason we got there (the championships)" said coach Gourlay.

The team honored Praggastis, recently recovered from a 2003 knee injury, with a team-signed ball and jersey.

In other highlights: For the U14 girls, Elsa Sweek scored all 6 goals for her team, including a hat trick. And the U11 boys ended the tournament with a winning record as well.

There were 100 teams from Idaho, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Utah at the two-day tournament.

 

S.U.F.C. Portneuf results:

U18 Girls (4-0): Aside from Schwartzenberger’s outstanding play at offensive outside midfield, strikers Irlande King and Charlotte Gourlay also played well, each scoring against Supernova. Kaylie Aaker added 2 goals against Supernova. Gourlay had a pair along with a single by Danielle Donovan in the 3-1 semi-final victory over PVSC Poky.

Gussi Ochi, Cassidy Doucette and Nicole Carlsen all showed strong play as well in the excellent team effort.

U16 Girls (1-2): Sara Berman, Tara Cappel, Margii Driscoll and Ross Mills each scored in a 4-0 rout of Alliance. "Man of the Match," winners were Sara Berman, Ellen Ard and Kaitlin Gasenica.

U14 Girls (2-2): Elsa Sweek was the Sawtooth offense for this team as she scored an amazing 6 goals in four games, including a hat trick against Blitz. The girls lost the championship match 2-1 to the Helena Arsenal. Earlier, they beat JH Extreme 1-0 and Blitz 3-1.

U13 Girls: (0-3): Sophia Schwartz was strong in goal all weekend for Sawtooth, despite the team dropping three games.

Ull Girls (0-3): The girls lost a scoreless last match to Bozeman on penalty kicks 4-2. Taylor Hayes and Madison Gove had the goals.

U11 Boys (2-1): As the only boys team with a winning record, the boys had 1-0 and 2-1 wins over PVSC Tornadoes and PVSC Lightning. Chris DeLaCruz was the MVP with 4 goals in three games, including 2 goals against Lightning. Tanner Farrow also had a goal.

U12 Boys (1-2): A solid 3-2 weekend-opening win over Bozeman Blaze wasn’t enough to carry the team as they lost 2-0 to Vikings and 3-1 on penalty shots (Chance McCroskey) after a 1-1 regulation draw with Jackson Hole Extreme (Bergen Palmer). "MOM" winners Bergen Palmer and Daniel Sundali had strong games. In their lone win, U12 goals were scored by Jackson Bates, Tanner Flanigan and Wyatt Bunce.

U13 Boys (1-2): In a victory over the Spiders, Hank Mason, Austin Moses and Austin Grill each had a goal. Mason was the strong player for the U13 boys at midfield all weekend. Mason and Rafael Barriga scored in Xtreme’s 6-2 win over the U13s.

U14 Boys (1-2): In a 5-0 trouncing of Odyssey, Carl Jablonski and Colin Almquist each had 2 goals with Clay Johnson adding the fifth.

U16 Boys (1-3): The lone win came in a 5-3 shootout win over Xtreme, after a 2-2 regulation tie. Chad Levitan and Billy Dankanyin scored in regulation time. Levitan, Dankanyin, Ross Campbell, Garrett Leo and Michael Dale were the shootout goal scorers for the U16s. And Garrett Leo had the only goal in a 3-1 loss to the Xtreme.

U18 Boys (0-3): Byron Epp and Tate Mills had strong weekends with Epp getting 2 goals and Mills a single in a tight match with Diablos that was eventually lost in a 3-1 shootout (Sagen Howard). Epp added goals in the team’s 7-1 and 4-1 losses to Ballistic SC.

This coming weekend, S.U.F.C. sends U12, U13, U14 and U15 boys along with U13 and U16 girls over to Idaho Falls for league games.

Scheduled for the weekend of May 1-2 is the Idaho Falls Shootout with most of Sawtooth United’s teams traveling.

 

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