E.T. Richardson girls' seventh-grade basketball team opened season

The E.T. Richardson’s seventh-grade girls’ basketball team opened its season with three consecutive league wins. The team consists of 14 highly-skilled girls who are looking to continue to improve as players. The team is averaging 32 points per game while limiting its opponents to single digits.
ETR 31
Springton Lake 6
The Cougars jumped out to a commanding 12-point first-quarter lead and never looked back.
Jamie Brower was dominant in the paint as she recorded six first-quarter points,benefited from some excellent passes by Mackenzie Schott. The backcourt of Maggie O’Connell and Jill Kane combined for 11 points as the game was decided by halftime with the Cougars firmly in control 15-0.
The inside play of Amanda Hopkins with four points and Jill Condon with two points kept the offense rolling. Springton Lake had difficulty with the size advantage of the Cougar frontline throughout the game. More than half of the team’s points came from the lane as Stephanie McCann would chip in with a basket while playing stellar defense.
The balance of scoring was evident as eight players scored points of the 12 that played. Bridget Whitaker and Kiley Fasy would also find the bottom of the net as the team led 30-0 entering the final quarter. Courtney Clark and Erika Biehl hustled at both ends of the floor while also having opportunities to score. Bailey O’Brien was a burst of energy coming off the bench sparking her team to two easy baskets after tracking down two loose balls for teammate’s points.
The defense would allow six fourth-quarter points as they coasted to their first victory of the young season.
ETR 36
Beverly Hills 8
The team traveled to Beverly Hills, Dec. 19, and left with an easy victory over the hospitable Bears. The balanced scoring by the Cougars was evident as 10 players scored the ball. Mackenzie Schott and Jamie Brower led their team with six points each. Colleen Culbertson led the offense as she started the game at point guard. Culbertson dished three assists while not having a turnover in the game. She also hit two outside jump shots to spark her team to a 21-2 first-half advantage.
Jill Condon and Stephanie McCann scored early as they dominated the inside play. Jamie Brower and Gianna Zulli muscled inside as they combined to score 10 points, all from in the paint. The team was led once again by the passing game as Jill Kane and Bailey O’Brien continued to find their open teammates for open looks. This dynamic duo each scored four points and played excellent defense. Kiley Fasy and Erika Biehl came off the bench to spark their team to an 8-0 third-quarter run that would put the game out of reach. They hit on three of their four shots taken. Bridget Whitaker and Courtney Clark did what they do best -- cause havoc for their opposition. These two teammates combined for four steals and six rebounds to limit the Bears offensively.
The team continues to improve as they have developed a positive chemistry on the floor.
E.T. Richardson 28
Drexel Hill 8
The high-flying Cougars jumped out to a commanding 13-point lead as they declawed the Falcons from Drexel Hill. Jill Kane and Maggie O’Connell set the tone as they scored off of the tip to register the first basket in three seconds. The starting backcourt combined for 10 points all within the first quarter of play. The visiting Falcons fell behind by eight points before taking a shot. Jamie Brower was, again, a force inside as she scored five points to lead her team in the paint. Courtney Clark had her best shooting day of the season as she led her team with seven points. Clark’s hard work at practice paid off for her team in the scoring column.
The Cougars lead advancedin the second quarter to 20-2 as Bailey O’Brien and Colleen Culbertson knocked down two outside shots.
Amanda Hopkins also chipped in with a basket as the rout was on its way. Stephanie McCann and Gianna Zulli combined to haul in seven rebounds as the Drexel Hill squad was over-matched inside. Mackenzie Schott would do what she does best -- setting up her teammates for easy baskets. Schott assisted on two baskets while recording two steals.
Kiley Fasy and Erika Biehl led their team in the hustle department as they played outstanding defense, while also having chances to score. The team cruised to its third consecutive victory and look to make things happen in the highly competitive league.

Springfield Sparks U9 Blue played holiday tourney

The Springfield Sparks U9 Blue team put some “kick” in their holiday week by playing in the BYC Futsal Holiday Tournament. The team includes: Lanie Morris, Kira Criscuolo, Gianna Mirigliano, Cathleen Walters, Caroline Walters, Mairin Gallagher and Carly Walters.

Ridley United Soccer Club Strikers win championship

The Ridley United Soccer Club U12 Strikers recently won the Delco Championship after defeating the Pottsgrove Soccer Club, 3-0.

The team, seen above, are (from left, front row) Kieran Hassard, Martin Meenan, Zach Dainton, Adam Staples, Kevin Calamita, Jack Becker, Connor Warwick, and Connor Gordon. In the second row (from left) are Sean Gordon, Kyran Baker, Michael Chiarlone, Justin Eckard, Ryan Henderson, and Brendan Higgins. The coaches are Marty Meenan, Jeff Warwick and Matt Calamita.

Garney Valley youth help Spirit United U12 Sol win championship

On Nov. 19, the Spirit United Soccer Club U12 “Sol” finished the 2011 Fall season as Delco Soccer League Division 1 Champions.

Garnet Valley boys on the team include Nate Antignani and Kenan Wursthorn. This tremendous achievement capped off a phenomenal year for the Sol which started in the spring winning the Jefferson Cup in Virginia, a top ranked national tournament.

More success followed as the team won the Eastern Pennsylvania Turkey Hill Challenge Cup (state champions) and were finalists in the highly ranked FC Delco Players Cup in May. In the midst of all this, the team expanded from 8-on-8 to 11-on-11 at U12 which ultimately added six new players to the Sol’s roster.

The Sol kicked off its summer medley of tournaments as Finalists at the West Chester Summer Classic, losing only to penalty kicks. They also played their first international match at the Spirit Kick-Off Classic XXV in August. The Sol concluded the summer as Finalists at the Keystone Cup in Lancaster.

In September, the Sol began Delco Soccer league play in Division 1 by beating the PA Classics, winner of the Keystone Cup. Division 1 of the Delco Soccer League is arguably one of the most competitive soccer leagues in the nation with seven out the eleven U12 teams nationally ranked on Got Soccer’s top 25 list.

The Sol team is currently ranked by Got Soccer at #10 in the nation which is no small feat since there are over 1.5 million boys affiliated with US Youth Soccer. In fact, the Delco Soccer League has 8 Divisions, with Division 1 being the premier, sporting over 81 travel teams at the U12 boys age group alone, a testament to the love of soccer in this area.

This year, Delco Division 1 attracted teams from all over the region including Maryland and Delaware which is nothing new to the Sol who compete with teams as far away as Canada and Ohio as well as those closer to home such as New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

In the Delco regular season, the Sol team went 7-1-2 which earned them a coveted second place seed in the Delco Playoffs. The Sol’s first playoff game was against Fewster, ranked #1 in the nation, who the Sol beat for the 2nd time in 7 days. This key playoff win led the Sol to the Finals game against the West Chester United Predators who always offer tough competition.

The Sol was up 1-0 early in the 1st half when forward, Kenan Wursthorn, scored a 2nd goal from about 15 yards. Speaking of his goal, Kenan said, “My teammate passed me the ball. I saw an opening through the defense to the left corner of the net, and I just let it rip. I knew the goal keeper could not reach the ball and it was going in.”

With a solid performance in the midfield by Nate Antignani, the Sol finished 3-1 at the end of the championship match. Coach Ciaran Barrett remarked that it was the total effort that each member of team put forward all season that resulted in the Sol being named the 2011 Delco U12 Division 1 Champions.

This Spirit United team is not your typical community travel team; based in Downingtown, its success has drawn boys from all over Eastern Pennsylvania including Garnet Valley and as far away as Hamburg, PA. In fact, most of the team travels well over 45 minutes, each way, to attend training. The boys and their families are dedicated to the development of their soccer skills.

All members of the team are active in one or more elite soccer organizations which provide high level instruction to supplement team training. These groups include the Union Juniors, Olympic Development Program (ODP) and Fusion Futures. In most cases, the aspiring soccer player must be invited just to tryout and the competition for limited spots is fierce.

The Sol team is well known in coaching circles, and often the Sol team is requested as a “demonstration” team for coaching training and licensing. In addition, many of the Sol boys opt to attend one or more summer camps during the team break in June which provide for all day soccer training from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

While the team does require the full commitment of its players and parents, the team has time for fun, as well, whether that be a team bowling party, goofing off with Nerf soccer balls between tournament games or their annual holiday party.

The success of the Spirit United U12 Boys Sol soccer team can be attributed to Coach Ciaran Barrett’s hard work, perseverance, learning, sacrifice, and love for the players and for the game of soccer.

Coach Barrett, a former local player as well as collegiate athlete and professional player, understands what is required to succeed in this growing sport. He is praised by the Sol parents for his dedication, commitment, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Most notably, his demeanor and actions set a positive example that the boys can admire.

To promote mental and emotional self growth, Barrett provided each player their own journal to write in each week. The boys record their thoughts about training, games, or other areas of their life that affect them as soccer players.

Also, Barrett provides detailed game reports with individual player and team feedback stating areas of strength and areas for improvement. These game reports are a valuable tool in helping to develop the players and team. It is evident that Ciaran has far exceeded his responsibility as coach to impact, teach and guide the team.

With 2011 coming to a close, the team will continue training on a weekly basis and ramp back up in the Spring in preparation for their next big challenge – the EPYSA State Cup to defend their status as state champions!

The Spirit United U12 Sol, seen above, are Nate Antignani, Phillip Bell, Tripp Davis, Alieu Kenneh, Alex Khaldaoui, Colin Marshall, Kevin McFarland, Ben Myers, Arun Sankar, Carter Stuck, Alex Tullman, Ryan Wallace, Cole Wellington, Nick White, and Kenan Wursthorn.

St. Francis CYO basketball opens season

SFA H.S. JV
St. Francis 52
St. Dot’s A 37
The St. Francis of Assisi (SFA) ninth and 10th graders opened the 2011 -2012 season with an impressive win over St. Dot’s A team.
Ben Clausen and Colin Ringwalt led the way for the green and gold with 11 points apiece. Kevin McKnight chipped in with eight and Andrew Peranteau tallied seven.
The Bruins jumped out to a 12-5 first-quarter lead, and they expanded it to 26-13 by the half, never being threatened in this game by their rivals from Township Line.
St. Francis 59
OLPH 30
It was just one of those nights as the SFA JV Bruins improved their record to 2 and 0 with a decisive 29-point win over OLPH.
Blistering out to a 15-5 first-quarter lead, SFA rolled to an easy win in this contest. Coach Milt Hedrick commented on the great play of Andrew Peranteau who “was outstanding and is really starting to understand his game.” Peranteau tallied six points with 10 assists and eight rebounds.
The SFA scoring was led by Kevin McKnight with 12, followed by Ben Clausen and Joe Travagline with eight apiece.
Holy Cross 39
St. Francis 38
It was a real barnburner at the St. Francis gym as the hosts fell to their cross-town rivals from Holy Cross by a point.
Besides the kids from both squads giving their all on the court, this game featured two former players as coaches for each team who should be well remembered by Springfield SFA-Holy Cross fans. Young Zach Myers is coaching Holy Cross, and Alex Yuravage is an assistant to long-time St. Francis head-man Milt Hedrick.
This was a tough loss for the green and gold. Holy Cross led throughout, by as much as 12 points, but St. Francis was diligent, coming to within the last shot of winning the game.
The Bruin’s Ben Clausen led all scorers with 17 points, and he also tallied eight rebounds against the tough, athletic Holy Cross squad. Hard-nosed SFA point-guard Kevin George also was outstanding, tallying 10 points for the Bruins.
SFA H.S. Varsity
SFA 59
Holy Cross 36
SFA opened its 2011-2012 campaign with a solid win at home against Holy Cross. According to Coach Milt Hedrick, this game was “over early” as the green and gold scurried out to a 41-10 halftime lead and never looked back.
Eight different players tallied points for SFA in, led by Matt Reichert with 18. Jeff Peranteau and Mike Dougherty tallied 12 apiece, and Nick Santana had eight. Eric Pollock and John Ciurlino helped control the boards with seven and six rebounds, respectively.
St. Dot’s A 47
SFA 39
The Varsity Bruins started off slowly and never fully recovered before falling to St. Dot’s.
In spite of the fact that this team has had very little time to practice as a team, Coach Hedrick sees great potential for this squad once “they get their basketball legs.”
Jeff Peranteau turned in another outstanding game for the Bruins, tallying 14 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
Another key player was Eric Pollock with three points and five boards. John Ciurlino and Nick Cahill turned in five apiece. John Oakley had six and Pat O’Connell had three.

Nether United Palominos win Columbia Fall Classic in dramatic fashion

The Nether United U14G Palominos based in Delaware County traveled to Columbia MD the weekend of Nov 19th/20th to compete in the Columbia Fall Classic tournament. After stringing together 3 convincing wins versus Montgomery Soccer Club, DC Stoddard United and FC Frederick to qualify for the championship game; the Palominos faced the Baltimore Bays and led the game in the closing minutes.

But the Baltimore Bays tied the game at 2-2 in the closing seconds of the championship game and the game went to penalty kicks (PKs) where the Palominos won in dramatic fashion with three successful PKs and two outstanding saves by the Palomino’s keeper which bested the Baltimore’s efforts.

Congratulations Palominos on a hard fought championship in Maryland!

The Nether United Palaminos (seen above) are (front row, from left) keepers R. Alderman and K. Fisher. In the middle row are (from left) M. Koscinski, J. DeCarlo, K. Nakrasius, M. Maguire, M. Walsh, M. Munsell, and A. Pezick. In the back row are (from left) L. Brenner, C. Brake, A. Graeff, J. West, E. Mathewson, M. Gibbs, K. Kuzemka, M. Laird, J. Nicholson, and A. Kruse. Coaches are Michelle Vaccaro (left) and Andrew Brenner (right).