The U18 Division of the US Soccer Development Academy was back in action on April 9th and 10th with 37 games featuring an impressive 130 goals from around the country.

East Conference

Team of the weekend: FC Westchester

We start our review of the weekend in the East Conference and look at our team of the weekend, FC Westchester of New York. FCW was a perfect 2-0 on the weekend as they look to climb up the Development Academy standings and work their way into a playoff spot. They began the weekend with a 1-0 victory over NJSA by way of a 38th minute goal from defender Connor Preece, his first of the season.

It was their second game of the weekend against Match Fit Chelsea that would raise most of the eyebrows, however as Westchester defeated the New Jersey club 7-1 through a hat trick from Harvard commitment Hiroki Kobayashi. Ryan McNamara (New Hampshire), Conor Gleba, David Alemany and Dan Norris would also score.

Elsewhere around the East, Baltimore Bays Chelsea would solidify their top spot in the Mid-Atlantic Division with a 2-0 victory over Cosmos Academy East. #20 overall player Chris Somerville (Virginia) would score the game winning goal with Michael Kovach adding a second. Baltimore Bays would cap a 2-0 weekend with a 5-0 victory over Met Oval on Sunday afternoon.

New York Red Bulls U18 scored an impressive 4-0 win over Oakwood Soccer Club on Saturday with two goals from Brandon Allen as well as goals from Dan Metzger and Konrad Plewa.

Central Conference

Team of the Weekend: St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri

It was tough to pick a team in this division as the results around the weekend were mixed, but in the first full weekend of Frontier Division play, St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri impressed with four points from two division games. The weekend started with a wild 3-3 draw against Minnesota rivals Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Goals from Hollie Gray and Eddosa Muhammed had put SSM up 2-1 when Robbie Kristo (St. Louis) scored his second goal of the game in the 88th minute to tie the game and Kyle Malle scored an apparent winner just two minutes later. However Christian Blandon of Shattuck would score right before the final whistle to earn a point for SSM and keep them at the top of the division.

Gallagher would grab a win on Sunday however, scoring a 2-1 victory over Minnesota Thunder. Jason Grant (Western Michigan) and Alec Cochran (Wisconsin) with the goals for the St. Louis club in that victory. Elsewhere around the Frontier division, Taylor Hunter would grab a hat trick as Real Colorado scored an impressive 5-1 victory over Sporting KC with Jordan Rideout tallying the only goal for SKC.

Down in Texas, the only game of the weekend saw Dallas Texans drawing 1-1 with Andromeda. Jacob Van Compernolle had the goal for Texans while Kevin Machado scored the equalizer in the 35th minute. The point pushes Texans into a tie for 2nd place in the hotly contested division.

It was a fairly light weekend in the Great Lakes district as well with Chicago Fire drawing FC Milwaukee 2-2 on Saturday afternoon. Marquette commitment Kelmend Islami scored both goals for FCM while Victor Pineda, our #39 ranked player, and Michigan State commitment Noah Anthony scored for the Fire. Chicago would finish their weekend with a 2-1 victory over fellow Chicago club Sockers FC. Pineda would score his second goal of the weekend with Ohio State commit Brady Wahl adding a second for the MLS club.

South Conference

The south conference was mostly off this weekend with just a couple of games as Clearwater Chargers would defeat IMG Academy 3-1 while North Carolina Fusion and CASL Chelsea would play to a 1-1 draw.

West Conference

Team of the weekend: Chivas USA

While they only played one game this weekend, it’s impossible to not say Chivas USA is the team of the weekend out west as they defeated Arsenal of California 7-0 in a matchup of the 1st and 3rd place teams in the SoCal Division. A first half red card to Arsenal goalkeeper Anthony Perez would doom the California club with Pedro Velazquez and Jean-Paul Yalap scoring two goals each and Bryan De La Fuente, Daniel Castro and Christian Carrillo adding the other three.

Second-placed Pateadores was the other impressive team finishing the weekend 2-0 with a 3-1 win over Santa Cruz Breakers on Saturday and a 2-0 victory over De Anza Force on Sunday. Fredy Raza Vences of Pateadores has to be the player of the weekend across the academy as Vences scored all three goals against the Breakers while adding another on Sunday aganst De Anza Force.

De Anza Force would bounce back from their loss to Pateadores with a 1-0 win over Irvine Strikers by way of a late winner from their #10, Stefano Bonomo while Arsenal FC would defeat the LA Galaxy 2-1 on Sunday afternoon with goals coming from Ulises Mosqueda and Dennis Flores.

(Tomorrow: An update on the U16 Age Group)