RSL Florida Wins Two State Championships
Posted By Nick Murray at May 19, 2008 at 02:36 PM
Updated May 19, 2008 at 03:16 PM


RSL Florida’s girls under-17 and under-16 teams both won Florida Youth Soccer Association State Cup titles in Pensacola on Sunday as the under-17’s defeated the Valrico Fury in a shootout and the under-16’s recorded a 3-0 win against the IUS Elite.


RSL had advanced seven teams into finals, but only two of them were able to follow through to win titles. RSL’s under-17’s trailed for a large part of the final as Valrico’s Allison Griffin gave her team the lead 20 minutes into the first half off a free kick by Rudi Rodriguez. RSL tied the game in the last minute of regulation as Taylor Richardson latched onto a throw-in and fired a shot past Kendall Graham for the equalizer. After two scoreless overtime periods, the game went to a shootout. With the two teams remaining tied after five shots apiece, a save by Courtney Zwetsch gave Kayli Kishel the chance to end the game, which she did.

RSL’s under-16’s didn’t need overtime in its final as Connor Zwetsch scored twice and assisted on another in their 3-0 win. Nikki Carter opened the scoring for RSL with a header off Zwetsch’s cross, and then Carter returned the favor for Zwetsch to make it 2-0 before Zwetsch added a third to wrap the game up.


Both teams will now represent Florida in the Region III Championship, which is to be held in Raleigh, N.C. from June 19-25.

RSL fell in its other two finals, as the under-18 team lost 6-0 to an IMG Academy team that is currently ranked No.1 in the nation by NationalSoccerRanking.com, and its under-13 team lost 3-1 to the Ponte Vedra Soccer Club.

All three of the RSL boys teams lost in their finals as the under-18 team fell short of its fourth title in five seasons as it lost in a shootout to Team Boca after the two teams played to a 2-2 tie after regulation and overtime.

RSL’s under-15’s also lost after a regulation tie as SAA-Real Madrid scored in overtime to win 3-2, while the under-14’s lost 2-1 in regulation to Kendall Soccer Coalition.