Soccer teams fare well at tournament

By MARK WAITE

VIEW STAFF WRITER

In the end it was the Green Dragons that emerged victorious in American Youth Soccer Organization under 10 boys area playoff action at Bullhead City, Ariz., Jan. 20.

With teams gathered from Bullhead City, Summerlin and Needles, Calif., it was two teams from Pahrump battling it out in the under 10 boys tournament. In typical fashion throughout the season, the duel between the Green Dragons and Cobs Crushers came down to a shoot-out. Both teams booted in two goals when Cody Meads, from the Green Dragons, scored the go-ahead goal, and two more kickers from the Cobs Crushers couldn't match it, leaving the Green Dragons with the 3-2 shoot-out victory.

In regulation play, the Cobs Crushers had taken a 2-1 victory over the Green Dragons in the first round, Justin Courville and Matthew Marshall scored for the Crushers, Corey Veloz booted a goal for the Dragons. The Green Dragons tied up the series with a 2-1 win later in the day behind goals by Chase Iverson and Veloz, while Courville scored for the Crushers.

The championship brought to the end a successful season by the Green Dragons, coached by Russ Meads.

"We had a great record. The only other games we lost were to the Cobs Crushers. We lost one time during the regular season and one time during the tournament," Meads said.

The Green Dragons were victorious over the Cobs Crushers three times in the regular season, Meads said, but he added, "They were definitely the toughest competition we played all year."

During the playoff among Pahrump AYSO teams at Honeysuckle Park Dec. 16, the Green Dragons edged the Cobs Crushers in a shoot-out after a 3-3 tie in regulation.

Both teams were nearly identical in the point standings after the next round of tournament action in Pahrump Jan. 7, the Cobs Crushers were in first with 29 points, the Green Dragons were second with 28 points. Under the rating system six points are awarded for a win, one point for every goal scored up to three points in a game, three points for a tie and one point for a shutout.

In competition among other age groups, the White Tigers of Bullhead City shut out the Silver Bullets from Pahrump, 3-0 and 2-0, in the Under 12 boys division. Among the under 12 girls competition, the Stars, a Summerlin team, blanked the Tigers from Pahrump 2-0, then defeated the Tigers again in the later game 2-1, with the Tigers' only score coming from Crissy Cummins.

In the only other age category, the Strawberry Shakes, from Bullhead City, edged the Sting, from Summerlin, 1-0 in overtime, then after a 1-1 tie in the late game, won a shoot-out 4-1 to win the under 10 girls division.

The close contest among the Green Dragons and Cobs Crushers wasn't just by accident. AYSO Area Director Larry Berquist said the league tries to set up evenly matched teams.

"We do evaluations on the kids at the end of the year and then (the data is) fed into the computer. The AYSO has a computer balancing program," Berquist said. "We've been doing that now for about the last three years, we found that it's been real equitable. That's one of the AYSO philosophies -- balanced teams, so the same kids don't play on the same teams every year. We found it works real well and it keeps the teams pretty competitive during the season."

The AYSO is different than most other soccer leagues, Berquist said, in abiding by principles that include open registration, anyone can sign up to play; the teams are balanced; and everyone is guaranteed to play at least half the game, many of them play three quarters, a rule that is monitored by the referees.

Berquist recalled before Pahrump started an AYSO league five years ago, young soccer players used to compete in tournaments in Palm Springs, Calif. Summerlin is now in its third year of AYSO play, but it's still considered a pilot program. Needles is competing in its second year, while Boulder City fielded its first area AYSO teams this year, he said. The AYSO now has consistent training books for players in the various age categories, so the training is consistent whether a player goes to California, New York or wherever, Berquist said.

Play in the under 8 and under 6 age groups is noncompetitive, those teams finished their season before Thanksgiving. The under 8 age group plays seven players to a team. The under 10 and under 12 age groups play nine members on each team. Teams in the under 14 age division field a full soccer team with 11 players, Berquist said.

"The U-6 field is about a third the size of a regular field because there's only five kids on there," Berquist said.

Berquist said there will be only a brief rest for many soccer players and their families. Registration for anyone interested in playing in the spring soccer season will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Pahrump Community Center. That season will last for two months in March and April.

"It was our first time last year (for spring soccer) we only had 125 kids. We're expecting between 200 and 300 this year. (In) our normal fall league we were at 660 this year," Berquist said.

An under 12 girls all-star soccer team from Pahrump will also be traveling to the AYSO World Cup games in New York July 30.