Wednesday, May 5, 2004

The triumphant SUFC U15 boys get together for a team photo after their Idaho Falls Shootout win. Front, from left, Teton Brown, Taylor Sundali, Jordan Pritchett, goalkeeper Regan O’Reilly, Zach Thornton, Ted Elgee and Ben Gourlay. Back row, from left, Mike Matteson, Travis Amick, Colin Almquist, Ryon Campbell, Carl Jablonski, Caleb Sonneland, Reid Pletcher, Cory Rutkowski, Blake King and coach Jason Lynch. Not pictured is Clay Johnson, injured in the weekend’s second game. Courtesy photo

U15 boys battle to Idaho Falls triumph

IF Shootout draws 10 Sawtooth United teams

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It always takes a little luck to win a soccer tournament, but it also takes a battling team mentality, coach Jason Lynch said about his Sawtooth United F.C. U15 boys’ soccer team after last weekend’s Idaho Falls Shootout.

His team had both.

Lynch’s U15 boys won a tense 1-0 semi-final battle over Idaho Falls Ballistic and then breezed to a 3-0 championship match victory over Helena (Mt.) Arsenal. It was SUFC’s only first-place finish of the 86-team tournament with teams from three states.

Forward Carl Jablonski (6 goals) led the offense and center defenseman Reid Pletcher sparked the iron curtain for the U15 boys (3-0-1), who were backstopped by goalkeeper Regan O’Reilly (3 goals allowed in 4 games).

Coach Lynch said, "Certainly Carl Jablonski was one of our standouts. The other standout was Reid Pletcher, and we just couldn’t win without him. We can use only three defensemen in back and put another player on the attack because of the way Reid plays."

Jablonski and Travis Amick scored in a tournament-opening 2-2 tie with Odyssey. Then, Jablonski had the 3-goal hat trick and Amick added a single goal in a 4-1 victory over Magic. That set up a pivotal game between SUFC and the Idaho Falls Ballistic.

Lynch said, "We knew our game with Ballistic would be the virtual final, even though it was the semi-final. It was neck-and-neck and hard fought. We were able to counter their advantage in skills with a battling team mentality. It was a very tense game."

With only 42 seconds left in the 70-minute contest, Jablonski lobbed a free kick from the wing just outside the penalty area. The Idaho Falls keeper got a hand on the ball and pushed it up, off the crossbar. Fortunately for SUFC, the ball bounced right back down into a crowd.

SUFC’s Taylor Sundali was in the right place at the right time and did whatever he could to redirect the ball into the net for the game-winning goal. "It was a real rush for us to concentrate for that long and pull out the win," said Lynch.

In Sunday’s anti-climactic championship game, SUFC was patient in its build-up and put together a 2-0 half-time lead en route to a 3-0 triumph over Helena. Jablonski scored twice and Teton Brown added a single goal.

Lynch said, "It was a fun weekend."

And it was a successful weekend for SUFC, which put five of its 10 traveling teams into divisional championship games and compiled a 12-16-8 overall record including four second-place finishes in the warm weather.

• U18 boys (1-1-2): Willie Meyers made a penalty for a 1-1 draw with Twin Falls Rapids. Sam Rodriques and Byron Epp scored in a 2-1 win over Marauders. A scoreless draw with Krew sent the U18s into the championship game, which they lost 2-1 to Krew (goal by Byron Epp).
  
   
• U16 boys (1-2): A 6-4 loss to Ballistic (Billy Dankanyin 2, Spencer Cordovano, Spencer Flade) and a 2-1 loss to Extreme (Dankanyin) were the preliminaries, then the U16s won 5-3 over PVSC (Cordovano 3, John Anderson, Garrett Leo, excellent play in the goal from Ken Mauro).
  
   
• U14 boys (2-1-1): Irwin Roman scored 4 goals, and Travis Stone and Ross Parsons added singles as the U14s opened with 2-1 and 2-0 wins, and a 2-2 draw. But Extreme won the title game 3-1 (Travis Stone).
  
   
• U13 boys (0-2-1): Austin Moses scored in a 1-1 draw with Odyssey. Twin Falls Rapids sent the U13s home 5-1 (Austin Grill).
  
   
• U12 boys (2-1-1): SUFC started off with a 3-1 win over Raptors (Brendan Freund 2, Raul Salinas, "Man of Match" Brendan Freund) and fought Jackson Hole Extreme to a scoreless tie (MOM Wyatt Bunce). In the semi-final SUFC blanked Thunder 2-0 (Daniel Sundali, Morgan Pike PK, MOM Tanner Flanigan). In the championship Aftershocks nipped SUFC 2-1 (MOM Bergen Palmer).
  
   
• U11 boys (1-1-1): Tie 1-1 with Thunder (Tanner Farrow); loss 4-1 to Tornado (Alex Garcia); and a 2-1 win over Jackson Hole Extreme (Drew Deffe, Harlan Collins).
  
   
• U16 girls (1-3): SUFC won its opening game 4-1 (goals by Margii Driscoll, Kaitlin Gasenica, Calley Brown, Kacie Femling). The girls then dropped 4-0, 2-0 and 2-0 contests.
  
   
• U14 girls (1-2-1): SUFC didn’t score in its first three games, but a scoreless tie in the semi-final against Jackson Hole Extreme forced a shootout—won by SUFC 6-5 on kicks made by Aly Segen, Cody Curran, Meghan Luck, Alison Freund, Kaitlyn Farrington and Michelle McMurdo. SUFC dropped the title game 4-0 to Extreme.
  
   
• U11 girls (0-3): Highlight was a solid effort in a 2-0 loss to Rapids.

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