Roadrunners Win Cougar Tournament

The Springfield Roadrunners U14 Boys team has a most successful Memorial Day weekend as they captured the title of Red Division champions (highest level) of the 29th Cougar Invitational Soccer Tournament in South Orange, NJ.

The tournament opened Friday night with a 2-2 tie with the Thistle FC Kearny Dragons, the defending champions. The Dragons struck first with a goal within the first 90 seconds of the match. Springfield knotted up the game 20 minutes later on a brilliant cross pass from Danny Micolta to Kevin Casteblanco. The Roadrunners took the lead on a blast from Matthew Pacheco halfway through the second half. With five minutes left Thistle scored to knot up the match. During the game guest goalkeeper Andrew Shanes kept Springfield withing striking distance with 10 saves.

Saturday's game was hardly a contest. The Roadrunners soundly defeated the Ironbound Mustangs by a score of 8-1. Springfield took an astonishing 26 shots on goal! Scoring for the Roadrunners were Alberto Montalva (2) Noah Guber, Asmar Johnson (2) Jason Barreira, Andrew Maldenado and Pacheco.

In the semi-final on Sunday against the West Orange Vipers, Springfield was victorious by a score of 1-0 thanks to a goal with four minutes left by defenseman Andrew Maldenado as he took the ball 3/4 the length of the field for the tally. Maldenado made the West Orange goalkeeper commit to his left with a brilliant fake, then depositing the ball to his right corner.

Second guest goalkeeper Luke (Skywalker) Blecker amazingly batted a sure goal off the top crossbar with 10 minutes remaining. Blecker saved 10 shots in all. This statistic was vital as Springfield only took five. The Roadrunner defense comprised of Patrick Zahn, Arrington Joyner-Corniffe, Stephano Gonzaga,  Maldenado, and guest Reese Petersen, held a team that had scored (32) goals during an eight-game schedule this past Spring, scoreless. The Vipers had not scored less than three goals in any of those games. In addition, West Orange had been to the finals in 2009.

The final was a rematch of Friday night's game. The Thistle Dragons scored two quick goals early as Springfield went into intermission on the losing side. With 18 minutes left in the second half, Patrick Zahn, filling in at the midfield right position, scored his first goal of the Spring closing the gap. With 15 minutes left, the coach of the Dragons was double red-carded for the continuous arguing of a call leading to a forfeit of the match.

Captain Tyler Citrin, Johnny Chumbiauca, Yosuf Salomon, Austin Lopes and Kevin Chabla also contributed to the tournament win.