U14 Girls and U12 Boys To Play in Region Cup Finals

Miami Premier U11 girls edge Sunrise U10s in double overtime

March 19, 2007 - The u14 Select girls (92/93) won a pair of games over the weekend to advance to the Region A Division II finals. The u12 boys will also be making the trip to the finals. The u10 girls got knocked out of the u11 Region Cup by Miami Premier in a double overtime game.

The u14s first played a quarter-final match on Saturday. Sunrise faced off against Plantation for the third time this season. Sunrise trailed 1-0 at half but a pair of Kaitlin Murray goals gave Select the 2-1 victory. The win moved Select into the semi-final game and improved the team to 3-0 against Plantation. In the semi-finals, Sunrise played Miami Premier. During the regular season, Sunrise finished first and Miami Premier finished second. The teams switched roles in the FLUGSA playoffs, with Miami Premier defeating Sunrise for the title. This semi-final match was another close one and regulation played ended in a 1-1 tie. Sunrise won the game a few minutes into the first overtime. The team now moves on to play Royal Palm Beach in the championship.

The u12 boys also advanced to the championship game by defeating Miami Beach 4-0 in the semi-finals. The team will play Wellington for the title. This is the first year for the u12 boys and the team has come a long way under the leadership of head coach John Restrepo. Sunrise defeated Weston 2-1 in the prior match to get to the semi-finals.

The u10 Sunrise Sting girls were edged out by the u11 Miami Premier girls in a fantastic Region A semi-final match. The u10 Sting were playing up in this tournament against Miami Premier. Premier played the regular season in FLUGSA division I. Miami Premier took an early 1-0 lead at 4:00 minutes when a shot to the far post from the right side rebounded off the Sunrise keeper and a Premier player properly framed the goal to knock it in. At the 11:00 minute mark, Dallas Dorosy passed the ball back to center midfielder Mary Amos who shot the ball in from about 30 yards to tie the game.

In the second half, Premier took a 2-1 lead when Sunrise tried to clear the ball from inside the 18, however, it went right at a Premier defender who shot the ball high into the top of the goal from about 30 yards. Sunrise came back to tie the game with about six minutes remaining when Mary Amos passed the ball to Julia Jaffe towards the left touchline, Jaffe took the defender to the left, then beat her to the right to fire inside the far post for the goal. The Sting had an excellent chance a minute later to win the game win Jaffe put Dorosy in a 1v1 against the Premier keeper, but credit the Miami goalkeeper who came out and made a fantastic save to send the game to overtime.

The game remained scoreless through the first overtime. With three minutes remaining in the second overtime, Miami Premier scored to win this very exciting game 3-2. The Sunrise girls played 77 minutes with effectively no substitutes. The one extra player Sunrise had was unable to play more than a few minutes as she was recovering from the flu and could barely run. The loss ended a 26-game unbeaten streak for the team.

It was a great tournament for the u10 Sting, who got the chance to play some very good u11 teams in the Region A Cup and they gained valuable experience. The girls played two FLUGSA division I teams, losing to Miami Premier in double overtime and tying the Renegades 2-2 in a game that was also played with no substitutes. The girls had wins against Miami Lakes, Coral Gables and Treasure Coast. In competition this year against u11 teams, the u10 Sting is now 10-2-1.