South Florida U11 boys Put Out Atlanta’s Fire in Championship of Classic

To paraphrase Willie Sutton, when asked by some why the U-1ls participated in the Atlanta Fire Academy Classic this year, the answer was simple. “It’s where the competition was.”

Despite weather concerns that brought memories of the rain shortened Jefferson Cup Tournament, injuries to some of the team’s top players and the addition of new players who had only been part of the team for a short while, South Florida Elite went to Atlanta in search of finding out if they could compete with the nation’s best. All of the teams participating in the tournament’s classic division were ranked by soccerincollege.com in the top fifty in the country.

From the start, the teams the boys faced were tough. The first game was against East Ridge Express 98 Red. Although SFE dominated the ball throughout the game, this Chattanooga based squad featured determined defensive players, who stuffed the middle of the field and kept the ball out of the net. Time and time again, SFE forwards Caleb Young, Devon Nothard, Cristian Rivera, Carlos Bonilla, Ben Prince and Coby Atkinson attacked the Express defense without any success. Finally, at the end of the first half, Zachary Atkinson found the back of the net on a perfect pass from Georg Armstrong and our Florida boys won the game 1-0.

In the second game, SFE was pitted against the 12th ranked team in the country, the Atlanta Fire, in a very physical match in rainy conditions. A leading pass from Ben Prince to Caleb Young produced the game’s first score. Throughout the game, the SFE forwards and midfielders were rumbled off the ball, leaving defenders Zachary Saperstone and Max Krieg and goalkeeper Danny Ragoo to protect the SFE goal against overwhelming odds. This resulted in the Fire taking a 2-1 lead as the game was close to conclusion. The SFE eight, however, was not easily defeated, and the game ended at 2-2 when the Fire tied it with an own goal.

On Sunday morning, South Florida Elite’s offence and defense had an opportunity to shine against Memphis’ Tennessee Rush 98 Nike team. The game was close in the first half, with South Florida leading 3-2 on goals by Cristian Rivera, from a long leading pass from Zachary Saperstone; Caleb Young, who took a ball from the left side from Frederick Gil; and a superb penalty kick just before the whistle by Georg Armstrong. The Elite was able to put the game away ten minutes into the second half when Max Krieg caught a ball at midfield and slammed it into the net making the score 4-2. Goals soon followed on a pass from the right side by Coby Atkinson to a waiting Caleb Young and a second assist from Coby Atkinson to his brother, Zachary Atkinson. The game ended soon after a penalty kick by Cole Riccardi that scooted past the Tennessee goalkeeper.

South Florida was ahead on points and assured a place in the finals against the Atlanta Fire. SFE already knew that it had a tough challenge ahead of them when, just before the game began, the team learned that Zachary Saperstone would be unable to play. This required several players who had never played defense to fill in and perform.

The first half was a battle of two very well coached teams, the ball going back and forth, with tremendous goalkeeping on both ends. The second half opened with a quick goal by Atlanta and there was some concern by the Elite faithful that the team would not be able to come back. The players, however, never gave up. With little time left in the game, Caleb Young fought through two defenders and provided an opportunity to Devon Nothard, who would not let his teammates down with a booming kick past the Fire goalkeeper. The game went into overtime with the score tied 1-1. After two minutes of play, Young captured the ball in his end, dribbled it past the Atlanta defense and took a shot into the left side of the net for the go-ahead goal. Led by Max Krieg, who directed “traffic” on the field, South Florida Elite shut down the Atlanta offence for eight exciting minutes and claimed the Atlanta Fire Classic championship.

South Florida Elite proved its standing as one of the top U11 teams in the country.