Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer state cup kicks off this weekend

State cup play begins this weekend with a slate of games in the Eastern Pennsylvania NCS, Presidents and Challenge Cup.

The competition will culminate with finals being played at the WSFS Bank Sportsplex in Chester on Saturday, May 18 (NCS U12-17 and Presidents Cup) and Sunday, June 2 (NCS U18-U19 and Challenge Cup).

The NCS State Cup and State Presidents Cup will be contested in the U12-U19 age groups while the Challenge Cup will have three levels of competition at the U9-U11 age groups and one for U12-U19.

Teams that win the NCS State Cup will have a chance to advance to the US Youth Soccer Regional Championships while teams that win the Presidents Cup will have a chance to advance to the US Youth Soccer Eastern Presidents Cup. Challenge Cup teams only compete at the state level.

Both US Youth Soccer regional competitions will be held in West Virginia in 2024.

The Eastern Presidents Cup will be held June 14-18 and the Eastern Regional Championships will be held June 27-July 3. National events will be held for the Presidents Cup July 12-16 in Wichita, Kansas and the National Championships in Orlando July 23-28.

FC Ballyhoo was the lone US Youth Soccer national competition winner from Eastern Pennsylvania in 2023.

The York-based team won the National Presidents Cup at the U16 level and are back in the competition at the NCS State Cup level this year. They’ll play Quaker Elite Gold on March 23 in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Pennsylvania Presidents Cup final they won. National Presidents Cup finalist Steel United PA 2009 girls are also in the NCS State Cup this year and kick off on Sunday afternoon against Back Mountain Youth SA at home.

Three defending Eastern regional champions will return to the NCS State Cup field. Reading Rage 09 Pugh girls have a quarterfinal match on April 27 against the play-in round winner, Keystone FC Premier 2007 boys play on March 23 against the play-in round B winner and Penn FC Youth 2007 Girls Black host Hex FC Dominion USYS on March 23. Keystone FC had two regional winners on the girls side last year but will not be competing in state or regional competitions after moving their girls teams to the Girls Academy.

More information is available at www.epysa.org/state-cup.