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Kendall Wins U13 FLUGSA Championship after Overtime Game Against the Fire
Boca Raton, Florida (February 25, 2006) - The Kendall u13 girls team won both ends of a doubleheader today to win the FLUGSA championship on a windy day at FAU. Kendall won a dramatic overtime game over Sunrise and then beat the Eagles for the title.
Kendall opened up with a semi-final match against the defending champion Sunrise Fire. Kendall went into this match after
finishing in first place during the regular season, their only loss of the season was to
Sunrise on January 21, the teams also tied early in the season.
Wind was a big factor in this game and Sunrise had the wind to their back in the first half, the Fire completely dominated the first 10-minutes of the game, but after that Kendall started to play and the game evened out. Sunrise had six first half shots, Kendall had five.
Four minutes into the second half, Jasmine Patterson threw the ball in for Kendall on the Sunrise side and she found Haleigh Stremanos racing down the line all alone. Stremanos crossed the ball to Scarlett Montoya, who took the shot and scored to give Kendall the 1-0 lead.
Seven minutes later, Sunrise was fouled a few feet outside of the goal, to set up a penalty kick and goal for the Fire. Melissa Camacho took the shot for Sunrise to tie the game at one. Neither team could score for the rest of regulation and so both teams headed into what would be the first of two overtimes.
Kendall won the flip and kept the wind to their back in the first overtime, and used it advantageously, out shooting the Fire 4-0, but they could not score, sending the game into a second overtime. Sunrise had one excellent opportunity in the second overtime but the shot went high.
That mean penalty kicks to decide who would play for the championship.
The teams traded goals during the initial round of five, each team
scoring on their first, fourth and fifth kick. On the next round,
Kendall converted and Sunrise didn't, to give Kendall the semi-final
victory. Cerene Arsenault had the winning kick for Kendall.For Sunrise, it was the second time inside of five days they have lost a heartbreaker, the team lost on Monday in the Gator Showcase championship in the closing minutes to the the third ranked Melbourne Tsunami on a penalty kick. Despite the two losses, the Fire have been playing much better of late. They essentially played both Kendall and Melbourne, two of the better teams in the state, even. Losing today to Kendall on PKs after a double overtime, and losing to Melbourne on a penalty kick in the closing minutes on Monday. That came after an impressive run of wins in FLUGSA and the Showcase.
Kendall then went on to defeat the Eagles 2-1 in the championship game.
Kendall jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead. The Eagles tied the game. Another first
half goal by Kendall gave them the 2-1 lead. That would be the final and winning
goal of the game for Kendall.