BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – In the end it was partly about last man standing, but some good soccer still seeped through the 6-day heat-plagued marathon that was the U.S. Youth Soccer Region III Championships here, and it is also true that all teams had the same conditions.

And so 14 champions were crowned, with teams looking for their own drama on a day when the U.S. Men’s National Team stole national headlines with their dramatic win. Special thanks to the local and regional tournament organizers with helping in so many ways to facilitate my coverage of the event. Thank you. Thanks also to Mike Anderson of U.S. Youth Soccer for help with details of the matches for our articles this week, including this one.

U16 Girls Championship: Solar SC (NTX) 3, ASA Xtreme (GA) 0

Adrian Solca’s team was in good form as they closed out the tournament with a strong and composed performance.

Taylor Smith epitomized the team’s fighting spirit by getting out of a hospital last night following a neck injury in the semifinal, and playing in this game. While Smith didn’t get on the scoresheet Wednesday, she was a menace all day with her strong running up front.

Heather Magee’s running was also good and she earned a corner midway through the 1st half. The ball was served into the penalty area where Brinkley Field looped a shot over the goalkeeper and just under the bar to put the Dallas-area team up 1-0. Solar’s Quinnie Truon was very good in the middle of the park, winning balls and especially spraying them around to allow Solar to switch the point of attack.

Trying to answer, ASA’s Kacey McInerney had a turn and shot that Solar goalkeeper Jennifer Jaspwer saved. Liliana Rios then had a shot deflected for a corner, when Jordan Morell served a cross and Mackenzie Bailey headed over. Solar’s Mckenzie Hightower was putting in some tough tackles in the back line to help fluster the ASA attack.

In the 2nd half, Heather Magee ran in with the ball from the right and sent a good square ball into the middle for Loudell Crumpler to deftly sidefoot into the net, putting her team up 2-0.  Crumpler was also good through the match in helping the team maintain possession.

Solar nearly made it 3-0 when Smith played Lauren Heller in on a break, but ASA goalkeeper Hannah Garcia made a big save. Time ran out on the Georgians however and after Quinnie Truong provided a 3rd goal for her team with a terrific strike from distance, Solar were crowned champions.

U17 Girls: D’Feeters (NTX) 2, Ponte Vedra Storm (FL) 1

Chioma Ubogagu scored twice including a 90th minute winner to lift David Pfeil’s squad to a regional title. Carson Pickett scored for Ponte Vedra.

While Ubogagu’s goal-scoring prowess is an attention-getter for any spectator watching the Dallas-area team, both she and Pfeil noted sweeper Meghan Streight is a key part of the team’s success.

“We work on our organization a lot,” Pfeil said. “We don’t play a flat back four like a lot of teams, we play with kind of a floating sweeper, but from the first game we played them on Sunday (a 2-1 Ponte Vedra win) we learned quite a bit from them. So we certainly made adjustments and always were organized.”

“We picked her up from Longhorns, a DII team (in the Dallas Classic League) and no one recognized her then,” Ubogagu shared. “But when she started working with our team, our club is really big on working on the skills and she had an awesome work ethic and she’s one of our best players now. She played lights out today.”

D’Feeters had also won their quarterfinal match against Florida State Cup winners Team Boca 3-2 with a goal in the final minute.

Other Results

U14 Boys: Lonestar SC (STX) 1, Charlotte SC 0 – Andrew Lopez’s 2nd half strike was the difference.

U14 Girls: Sting SC (NTX) 2, Lonestar SC (STX) 1 – Victoria Gates and Victoria Bowman scored for the North Dallas side, which held off Lonestar despite a 2nd half goal from Alexis Urch

U15 Boys: Concorde Fire Elite (GA) 1, Mexicas (STX) 0 – Cameron Mosely scored a 2nd half winner for the Atlanta-area side.

U15 Girls: Sting SC (NTX) 1, Hurricane FC (OK) 0 -  Tatu’s powerhouse squad found itself in a battle for the first time this week, but edged Hurricane FC on an early goal from Kendall McKnight.

U16 Boys: RSL Florida 2, Concorde Fire Elite 1 (GA) 1 – Travis Jehs scored in overtime to lift the Floridians to the title. Lakota Thomas had put RSL on top early in the 2nd half, but Concorde’s Adrian Alabi equalized to send the match into overtime.

U17 Boys: Alpharetta Ambush (GA) 4, GSA Phoenix (GA) 1 (OT) – Iain Smith had sent the match into the overtime with a stoppage time equalizer for GSA, canceling out Al Hagi Toure’s opener, but Karl Chester put Ambush on top 2-1, then Toure made it 3-1 and Jaime Sanclemente added a 4th in the closing minutes as the Georgia State Cup champions prevailed over their in-state rival, who will also compete in the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships via the National League.

U18 Boys: Triangle United (NC) 4, Edmond FC (OK) 1 – Robert Lovejoy scored twice and Sebastian Garner and Zabarle Kollie once each for the North Carolinians. Andrew Hall scored for Edmond.

U18 Girls: AFC Lightning (GA) 2, Sting SC (NTX) 1 – Amanda McCalla scored twice for the Atlanta-area team, overcoming a strike from Sting’s Danielle Nottingham.

U19 Boys: Andromeda Navy (NTX) 1, 91 Rebels Black (STX) – Alexei Reyes scored a 1st half winner for the Dallas-area side.

U19 Girls: Lonestar SC (STX) 2, Dallas Texans 1 – Jessica Fuston and Vanessa Ibuwieke scored 2nd half goals to lift Lonestar to a come-from-behind win over Texans, who got a goal from Kim Castleberry.