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Royals claim title at Ohio tournament

May 3, 2017   ·   0 Comments

The U14 King City Royals boys’ soccer team won the Bowling Green Soccer Spring Challenge championship this past weekend after going undefeated throughout the two-day tournament.
The tournament format had the Royals playing in one of two, four-team divisions where each divisional winner faced off against the other in the finals. All games were held on the campus of Ohio’s Bowling Green University.
In round robin play, the Royals started off quickly winning their first match 3-0 in the rain against the eventual divisional runner-ups, Michigan’s CRUSH FC. Goalkeeper Anthony Bruno picked up the clean sheet as Marco LaVerde, who scored twice, and Kahyl Jadavji scored the three King City goals.
The second match was also played in rainy but very windy conditions as the Royals faced off against New York’s Orchard Park Quakers. The Royals dominated play for most of the game as they easily won 7-1, led by Mario Fratto’s hat trick. Gianpaolo Luciani, Jacob Snelgrove and Zack Donsky, with a pair, scored the other goals in the win.
The final round robin game saw the Royals tie up Michigan’s Clawson Strikers 1-1 in a very chippy affair as goalkeeper Anthony Bruno was called upon a few times in the second half to make some key saves to salvage the draw. Clarkson scored 14 minutes in on an own goal off a corner kick to force the Royals to play behind for the first time in the tournament.
King City battled hard throughout and tied it up on a penalty kick mid-way through the second half when Marco LaVerde converted to tie the game up.
That set up a finals match-up between the Royals and Windsor FC Nationals, who won their group by scoring 19 goals and allowing zero in three games. King City’s other U14 team, United, played in Windsor’s group and although going undefeated with a win and two draws, just fell short from playing their club mates in the finals by finishing second in their division.
Windsor pressed hard throughout the game as they used their speed, especially down the wings, to pressure the Royals. King City’s defence played admirably to hold Windsor at bay until the Royals got a break with four minutes left in the first half when Zack Donsky was mauled inside the penalty box allowing Marco LaVerde to convert on the penalty kick to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.
The Royals were playing most of the second half in their own end holding on to the lead as goalkeeper Anthony Bruno made a huge diving save with about eight minutes left to pick up another clean sheet and give the Royals a 1-0 victory and championship title.
King City also had representation in the tournament with teams from the U11 and U12 boys division also playing. The U11 boys finished the round robin portion with a draw and two losses while the U12 boys won two of their three games and just missed advancing to the finals.
Special thanks to all the coaches who represented the various teams playing in the tournament, namely Carlos Rivas Jr. and Sr., Mike Dalakis and Emilio Marino, plus team manager Fabio Lupinetti who spent endless hours organizing the event for all the teams.

         

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