TWO REGION III CHAMPIONS!

Lightning teams showed well at the Region III Tournament this year. Of our five teams representing Georgia in North Little Rock we ended up with two champions and two semifinalists. The 84 White won the U18 Girls Region Championship and the 88 White won the U14 Girls championship. The 84 Gold and 87 Gold were semifinalists in U18 and U15 Boys respectively.

In U15 Boys the 87 Gold won their group with 3-0, 5-1 and 2-1 wins over EDDOA BC United (South Texas), '87 Knoxville Fire (Tennessee) and Solar SC '87 (North Texas). Their semifinal game against CASL Elite of North Carolina was a very frustrating affair with missed opportunities to score, questionable refereeing and an eventual 2-0 loss.

The 85 Gold, playing in the U17 age group tied the CSC Green from South Carolina in their first game 3-3. Their second game was a 4-1 loss to CASL Elite of North Carolina and their third game was a 2-1 win over Tulsa Nationals ’85 of Oklahoma. This was not enough for them to advance, but the players decided to stay on and support the rest of the Lightning teams. As coach Steve Hutton put it: "We paid for the hotel and we paid for the bus so they decided that they may as well stay".

Armed with air horns and shakers made of water bottles containing rocks or coins, they made their presence known at all of the other Lightning games, moving from game to game when more than one team was playing at a time. They did a lot to get the players going and their spirit spilled over on to the field. One of the U14 girls agreed that they helped get her pumped up and play harder.

The 84 Gold team won their U18 Boys group. They started with a 6-0 win over Jackson Futbol Club 84 of Mississippi. This was followed by a pair of 2-1 wins over the New Orleans Soccer Academy of Louisiana and NECSA Storm of South Carolina. The semifinal game was against the North Carolina team, Greensboro SC Green. A tense 0-0 game was taken to overtime where GSC finally prevailed 1-0, knocking 84 Gold out of the tournament.

The girls side fared even better than the boys. The U14 Girls, 88 White, won their first game 6-1 against Palm Beach United of Florida. They were not as fortunate in their second game, tying TNFC 88 Premier of Tenessee 1-1. In their third game they needed to win by three or at least match whatever TNFC Premier did against Palm Beach United. Going up 1-0 against Mississippi’s Jackson Futbol club was not going to be enough, as TNFC was leading 2-0. Late in the game, Brittany Schneider got a breakaway from half line to up the score to 2-0. This allowed the Lightning to win the group on goal difference and sent them to the semifinals. TNFC also made it to the semi’s as the wildcard team.

In the U18 girls, the 84 White team was also racking up the wins. Despite not having Allison Graham and Amy Steadman – their two National team players – they won their group, beating NOSA of Louisiana 5-1; Charlotte SC Blue (NC) 3-1 and St. Giles United Storm (SC) 2-1.

The semifinals for both girls’ teams presented a special problem. Brian Moore coaches both. Their games were scheduled at the same time. He had to choose between the U14’s who were playing the Tulsa Soccer Club 88 from Oklahoma and the U18’s who were playing Hurricane 84, also from Oklahoma. The decision was that the older girls would have the easier game, so he decided to stay with the younger ones.

The 88 White team went up 2-0. The game was well into the second half but Tulsa looked capable of scoring at any moment. At that point, a call came from the U18’s game. They were still tied 0-0 but Jada Stewart had just been sent off for a breakaway foul. Moore left the U14’s and went to the U18’s game. The younger team went on to score another goal and win by a comfortable 3-0 margin. As soon as the game was over, the players all went to see how the U18 game was going.

It was not going very well. Playing 10 against 11 in the intense heat was wearing the Lightning girls down. The stalemate continued and at the end of regulation time there was still no score. Thirty minutes of extra time followed. Keri Pendergrass of Lightning got the ball in the net, but no goal was given since the referee considered her contact with the goalkeeper to be a foul. Still scoreless, the inevitable lottery of penalty kicks would decide the outcome.

Lightning kicked first. Pendergrass’ shot was saved. On the Hurricanes corresponding kick, goalkeeper Kristen Rutland dove and tipped the ball around the post. In the next round, Melanie Schneider scored and Rutland again saved the Hurricane shot. Jordan Spencer scored Lightning's next shot while Rutland was flawless, saving another penalty. Dana Van Winkle stepped up to put the final kick home giving Lightning the win and a trip to the final for the first time in three years. As an added bonus, the D’Feeters of North Texas lost 1-0 to the Rocket City Lady Kicks of Alabama. The D’Feeters had beaten Lightning in the regional semifinal for the past two years in a row.

There were no major time conflicts with the finals. The U14 final was at 9:30 AM and the U18’s at 11:30. As long as the “Littles” (a name the U18’s had given the U14’s) did not go to overtime, Moore would not have to be in two places at one time.

After losing the group to the 88 White, TNFC made the best use of their semifinal spot, beating North Texas’ Texas Spirit 88 1-0. This set up a repeat of the round robin game played two days earlier, but this time it was for all the marbles.

88 White started out very tentatively. About midway through the first half, they seemed to find their stride and began to take control of the game. Just a few minutes before half time, what seemed to be a botched corner kick by Tannah Castro ended up being deflected into the goal at the near post by Katie Jacobsen. Lightning took the lead, 1-0.

Early in the second half, TNFC's Carrie Smith took a rocket shot from thirty yards out. The ball went into the upper corner of the goal, tying the score 1-1. At this point Lightning picked up the pace. The payoff came four minutes later when Jamie Daley headed the ball into the roof of the net from another Castro corner for a 2-1 lead. The score held and the 88 White walked away as Region III Champions.

After their nail biting semifinal experience, the 84 White had a much easier time of their final against Rocket City. Completely controlling the game, they took an early lead on a goal by Kristen Rhyne. Another goal by Mallory Bramlett in the second half sealed the victory. After losing heartbreakers in the semifinals for two years in a row, the 84 White were finally Region III Champions.

The 84 and 88 White teams will next compete against other Regional Champions for the National title. The teams will leave for nationals on July 22nd and will play round robin games on July 24th, 25th and 26th. The 27th is an off day with championship games scheduled for the 28th. We wish both teams the best of luck at Nationals.