Philadelphia Union Academy teams tested by full slate against Red Bulls, Bethesda SC, Baltimore Armour

The Philadelphia Union Academy U13 team made it nine wins in a row to start the season with a 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls that highlighted a full slate of weekend games in North Jersey and Maryland.

Coming off wins against New York City FC and New England Revolution in a showcase event in North Carolina, the U13 group faced arguably their toughest test of the season in North Jersey on Saturday.

Logan Oliver put the visitors on the front foot with a goal in the second minute and Beckham Aiman doubled the lead in the 18th minute with his seventh of the season to tie him with Marcelo Mazzola for the team lead.

The Red Bulls got a goal back on a penalty kick by Luciano Sanchez in the 28th minute, but the score held the final 42 minutes of the match to improve the Union’s record to 9-0-0.

The U14s got a result in part thanks to a 33rd minute goal from Quinn Sullivan. The goal was his second in league play for Sullivan in just his third game with his age group (he’s made eight appearances playing up with the U15s this season) but the Red Bulls found a 57th minute equalizer through Adam Havens that gave each team a point.

The draw was the third of the season for the U14s to go with six wins.

Moving to the older age groups, the U19 team split a pair of games in Maryland against Baltimore Armour and Bethesda SC.

Brady McSwain kept a clean sheet for the Union in his first start and Jeremy Rafanello scored the eventual game-winner in the 14th minute. The goal was his fourth winner and 10th of the campaign. Tonny Temple added his third of the year in the 78th minute and Brenden Aaronson his first in the season with the game winding down.

Temple scored again on Sunday to cut the Bethesda SC lead in half, but that was as close as the Union would get in a rematch of a game the Union won 4-0 at home in late September. The match saw the U19 debut for left back A.J. Cousins, who started and played the full 90.

The U19s fell to 6-2-0 with the result and conceded more ground in the Atlantic Division standings to first place New York Red Bulls, which have the best record in the country at 10-0-0.

The U17s improved to 4-1-4 on the season with 1-0 win over Baltimore Armour on Saturday and a 1-1 draw with Bethesda on Sunday.

Axel Picazo scored the game winner in the 42nd minute on Saturday and Kristopher Shakes picked up the clean sheet in front of a back line anchored by J.D. Wagner and Ian Graham with Donovan Wu and Cousins as outside backs.

The back line has been one of the U17 team’s strengths this season: Wagner, Graham and Wu have all played every minute of the season while Sunday’s game was the first without Cousins in the lineup because he was playing up with the U19s.

Shaynder Borgelin scored his second of the season in Sunday’s match, which ended in a 1-1 draw with Bethesda.

The U15 team won both matches Maryland, beating Baltimore Armour 3-1 on Saturday and Bethesda SC 2-1.

Selmir Miscic, Patrick Bohui and Nicholas Pariano had the goals on Saturday and Bohui had both goals on Sunday. Bohui now has four games in three games since becoming eligible to play. Miscic’s goal was his 15th of the season in 10 games.

Up next for the academy teams is another full slate of games with a visit to Players Development Academy on Saturday and games at home on Sunday against Baltimore Armour.