For immediate release………

 

3/17/06

 

U15 Wizards win the Chesterfield Tournament

 

The U-15 Wizards won the Chesterfield Tournament in dramatic fashion. It started off with the Wizards beating York United Force (PA) 3-0 in their first game. After a slow first half, the Wizards got on the board 5 minutes before halftime. Jack Hamilton started a break down the right side of the field with a pass to Gavin Vest. Gavin, in turn, quickly crossed the ball to Robert Alberti who shot it by the goalie. The Wizards scored again at the 10 minute mark of the second half when Karl Kummer took a cross from Robert Alberti from the left side of the pitch and punched it in the goal. Ten minutes later, Karl scored again when Bryan Giles fought for the ball in the back and shot a pass to Sam Schultz. Sam moved the ball up the middle and sent it to Karl for the score, and a 3-0 Wizards win.  

 

The Wizards' second game was the talk of the tournament. Down 0-3 halfway through the second half, the Wizards came back for a 4-3 victory over 90 CASL Premier (NC). After CASL scored two goals in the first half (one that barely crossed the goal line, and another on a PK), and a third goal early in the second half, it looked bleak for the Wizards. But with 20 minutes to go in the game, the Wizards took over. Their first score came when Jeremy Meredith redirected a long, high cross from Sean Moriarty over his left shoulder and headed it by the goalie. Two minutes later Will Hess scored on a pass up the middle from Robert Alberti. Two minutes after that Sean Moriarty took advantage of a misplayed ball by the CASL goalie, and made him pay with the game-tying goal. Five minutes after that Karl Kummer got the game winner when he took a Noah Jefferson pass and blasted it past the goalie. The Wizards continued to dominate play for the remainder of the game and came away with an exciting 4-3 victory.   

 

The Wizards semifinal game was against the Northern Steel Phantoms (PA). They earned a hard-fought 2-0 win. Karl Kummer got the Wizards on the board in the first half on a fast break started by Noah Jefferson that went to Gavin Vest, and Gavin crossed it to Karl for the goal. The only other goal of the game was scored by Robert Alberti in the second half when Noah Jefferson started another fast break. This time his pass went to Karl Kummer and Karl crossed it to Robert for the score and a 2-0 Wizards win, and a trip to the tournament finals.

 

Just like the game against 90 CASL Premier, the finals against VCCL rival, SOCA, was a heart-stopping, exciting game. In a game where the Wizards never had the lead, Karl Kummer's golden goal in the second overtime period gave the Wizards a well-deserved 3-2 win. Karl Kummer had the hat trick for game. After SOCA took a 1-0 lead, Karl took a loose ball inside the 18 and blasted it by the goalie to tie the game 1-1. In the second half, after SOCA had taken a 2-1 lead, Karl scored again on a Gavin Vest cross to knot the score 2-2. Karl's third goal of the game came in the second overtime when he took a Matt Mader pass up the middle and drove by two defenders to put a touch shot by the goalie for the game winner.  

 

The Wizards played strong defense throughout the tournament. Goalie Drake Kuhn earned two shutouts and made some dramatic saves during the games. Jeremy Meredith, Matt Mader, Sam Schultz, Jack Hamilton, and Hunter Smith shouldered most of the defensive duties and kept opponents off balance during the games.  

 

Congratulations to the Wizards. 2006 Chesterfield Tournament Champions!