Published: June 24, 2009 11:47 am      

All the way to the top

U-13 Girls Select Travel Soccer makes history

The U-13 Girls Select Travel Soccer team became the first team in the history of Zionsville Youth Soccer Association to make the final round of the Indiana State Cup tournament. To do this, they won their qualifying pool by beating Fishers SC Blue Lightning 4-0, Netsurfers Futbol 4-0 and tying the top seeded SWISA Crush 1-1.

They advanced to the semifinal round, where they defeated the Noblesville United Rowdies, the second-ranked team in the state for the first time in the team’s history 2-1. And although they lost in the finals to Carmel Academy, the team celebrated its performance in grand fashion. Coach Mike Beckner, who has been coaching the girls for several years did a great job having the girls prepared to play in each contest and was equally as thrilled about the outcome.

In qualifying play, the girls won their opener over the Fishers SC Blue Lightning 4-0 on two goals from Emily Freeman and one each from Madilyn Mann and Ashlyn McElderry. In their second game, they defeated the Netsurfers Futbol team 4-0 on goals from Mann, Freeman, Abby Shroyer, and Morgan Thimjon.

In their final game in pool play, they played the third-ranked SWISA Crush. They needed to tie or win to advance to the semifinal round. SWISA scored first on a great goal off a corner kick in the first 10 minutes of the contest.

The game went back and forth for the next 50 minutes, as both teams had a few opportunities to put the game away. Finally, in the last 10 minutes of the second half, Zionsville got the equalizer they were looking for, a left-footed strike from the top of the eighteen by Kirsten Castelli.

The last ten minutes continued to go back and forth and ended in a draw, 1-1. Zionsville advanced to the state finals based on goal differential.

“The team played an amazing three games,” Beckner said. “The last game was close, but the team prevailed by staying focused and working hard.”

The team traveled to Evansville on Saturday, June 6, where they started the final four weekend by playing the Noblesville United Rowdies. The team had played Noblesville many times over the past several years, and had never been able to beat them. Their best effort was a tie in regular season play in fall 2008. The girls proceeded to dominate the first half of the game to take a 2-0 lead by halftime on goals by Katherine Ratz and Madeline Mann. In the second half things changed, and Noblesville started to assert itself, while Zionsville did what they could to hang on. Noblesville scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half closing the gap to 2-1.

Coach Beckner implemented some tactical changes to beef up the defense, and from that point on the defense slowly started to take control, withstood the relentless Noblesville attack, and prevailed to advance to the finals.

In the final, the girls were on the short end of a 7-0 game and were beaten by a Carmel Academy team that consists of players from throughout the greater Indianapolis area, and are ranked in the top 12 in the nation.

“I am proud of all these kids, despite the score of the championship game, these kids played some of the best soccer I have seen them play,” Beckner said of the girls’ performance in the state cup run. “I was very impressed with the effort and the heart shown through this whole tournament.”