Drexel University’s Vidas field was the setting for a simmering long-awaited U.S. Youth Soccer National League U-17 finale between YMS Xplosion and Lower Merion Velez. A mild Saturday evening set a great stage for the many fans filling the stands here in Philadelphia to watch these top ranked national powerhouses, both looking for that quick ticket to Nationals this summer. With a slim lead in points YMS could advance with a tie or win, and for Lower Merion they needed the win alone and had hoped to avenge an earlier season 1-0 region 1 loss.

At the five minute mark, YMS defender Brian Powers hit a nice entry pass into the box finding Manolo Sanchez, who narrowly missed dropping some “first blood” on Velez. Then at the 30 minute mark, Ben Wysocki found YMS striker John Louisignao in front of Lower Merion goalkeeper Nick Irvine, yet struck the ball a bit high and to the dismay of the YMS contingent only found a non-yielding cross bar. The first half came to a close with the score knotted at zero. With some very solid play in the back by YMS defenders, Eric Schoenle, Sepp Dasbach, Ryan Tessler, and Powers who kept the sole Lower Merion offensive threat Evan Seltzer in check with a pair of attempted runs at splitting the YMS defense.

The second half began with building Velez offensive pressure created at 56 minutes when Seltzer head-flicked what looked like the first goal of the game, and negated by a diving outstretched Drew Hutchins.  With several modest opportunities to score from both clubs and as the heated match was winding down at 83 minutes former YMS player, Dalton Carroll, redirected a pass off his head which narrowly missed and glanced off the YMS goal post.  However, two minutes later, Carroll finished his next attempt when he hit a laser shot in the box which gave Velez the lead for good.

Unfortunately a few minutes later the match was marred by an incident between the Velez bench and a YMS defender. This led to a second card for the defender and his ejection, followed by a yellow card for someone on Velez’s  bench. Eight minutes later in stoppage time with YMS short a man and pushing for an equalizer, Velez forward Kevin Israel closed out the match with a well placed break-away goal to put the game away for 2-0 final.

Lower Merion’s backs, Patrick O’Neill and Jonathan Dolezal stepped up throughout the contest to consistently clog up and clear the defensive middle and the YMS counter attack, while protecting goalkeeper Irvine from any serious second half scoring opportunities. One thing is for sure…this will not be the end of this one long standing rivalry, both teams expect to meet again…and then possibly again before their respective spring soccer comes to a conclusion and another possible showdown at the Region I Championship in West Virginia.

Click here for a previous article about the Lower Merion/YMS Rivalry

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