Brick's Leah Scarpelli, U.S. Team Reach U15 Soccer Championship Game

ORLANDO, FL — Leah Scarpelli and her U.S. teammates have reached the championship game of the U15 Girls CONCACAF tournament.

The Brick Township resident is a defender on the U.S. team, which defeated Costa Rica 5-0 in the semifinals of the international tournament being played at ESPN's Wide World of Sports complex on the Disney properties in Orlando, on Friday and will play Canada, a 3-1 winner over Mexico in the other semifinal, on Sunday.

This is the second time the CONCACAF — the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football — has held a championship tournament for the U15 girls age bracket. Canada is the defending champion, having won the 2014 edition of the tournament in a penalty shootout over Haiti. The United States did not participate in that tournament.

The United States has yet to give up a goal in the 2016 tournament. In the group stage, the team opened with a 22-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago but battled for 1-0 wins over both Mexico and Haiti before finishing the stage with a 6-0 victory over the Domincan Republic. In the quarterfinals, the U.S. defeated Bermuda 12-0, while Canada won 10-0 over Curacao.

Sunday's game is at 11 a.m. at ESPN's Wide World of Sports but it is not being televised anywhere, unfortunately.

In the semifinal victory over Costa Rica on Friday, Gabrielle Robinson scored 40 seconds into the game, according to a report by CONCACAF. In the 23rd minute, Kalyssa Van Zanten struck for the first of her two straight goals. Samantha Meza did well to maintain possession in the right side of the box, before floating a cross to Van Zanten, whose effort took a deflection before rolling across the line, according to the report. Meza and Van Zanten combined again just before halftime to give the U.S. a 3-0 lead. Mia Fishel and Payton Linnehan added goals in the second half. Linnehan and Robinson have a team-leading eight goals in the tournament and Fishel has seven, according to U.S. Soccer's reports on the team's progress.

Scarpelli, who wears No. 5 for the U.S. National team and will join the Brick Memorial Mustangs on the high school field when she returns from Florida, is one of the team's captains and has started and played in every game except against Haiti in the group stage.

Leah Scarpelli photo, courtesy of Liz Scarpelli