Three area youth teams crowned regional champions, heading to nationals

Three area youth clubs spent their 4th of July lifting hardware in Spotsylvania, Virginia at the US Youth Soccer Region I championships.

Real Jersey FC’s boys U13 team edged another local team from Lower Merion Soccer Club and a boys U16 team from Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals also won to book a spot in the national championships in Texas later this month.

Penn Fusion’s boys U19/U20 team added to their trophy case, having already qualified for nationals through the US Youth Soccer National League, in a game that wasn’t even close.

Stach Jaran’s first half brace and Samuel Brown’s goal put Penn Fusion 98 up 3-0 in the first half and second half goals from Frank DeRosa, Ramon Gallegos and Quinn Dudek added to the onslaught.

The final was much tighter in the U16 boys division, where an own goal ended up sealing the title for Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals Black Premier over the central New Jersey club Match Fit Academy FC 2001 Black.

The Ukies outscored opponents 18-2 over the five-game stretch in Virginia with Dane Harmaty and Matthew Stevenson leading the way with four goals a piece.

Real Jersey FC needed overtime to beat Lower Merion SC Invictus in the U13 boys final. William Clewell opened the scoring for the South Jersey club in the second minute of play with his fourth of the competition, but Steven Fejardo found an equalizer for Invictus 15 minutes later, which eventually set up Tyler Davidson’s dramatic game-winner.

Six other teams from the region fell short in their regional finals matches. Delaware Rush 02 fell 2-1 to Virginia club BRYC in the U15 boys final, Western Pa. club Beadling SC went 3-0 up and held on to beat Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals 4-2 in the U14 boys final.

On the girls side, Delaware Rush got beat up 4-0 by Loudoun SC in the U12 final, Princeton SA lost again to old nemesis HBC Impact from New York in the U17 division, FC Pennsylvania Strikers fell 2-1 to Beadling in the U18 division and YMS Xplosion lost on PKs to Maryland club ASA Coyotes in the U19/U20 final.

YMS Xplosion will still head to nationals though, having qualified through the National League.

The US Youth Soccer National Championships will be held July 24-30 at the Toyota Soccer Center in Frisco, Texas.