U14 Boys Claim The Braden River Halloween Havoc Title

Congratulations to our U14 Boys who claimed the
Championship at the 2011Braden River Halloween Havoc Tournament 

Despite the many setbacks the team faced during this tournament, the Lee County Strikers U14 Boys battled their way to become the Braden River Halloween Havoc Champions for 2011 Having only accepted the invite to play in the tournament 10 days earlier it seemed that the team would have to overcome some huge obstacles just to be able to compete. Going into the tournament we knew we would have to complete the tournament without a player who is not only our main play maker, but also one of our captains. We also knew that we would be playing the first game of the tournament without one of our two main central defenders, so it really meant others had to step and give their all to overcome these deficits.

The Strikers first game was against Division 2 opponents, and last year's Region C runners up, Braden River, who were playing on their home ground. Despite having less possession, the Strikers limited Braden River to only a few chances, whilst still being able to create chances of their own. Eventually the game ended 0-0 against the team, who on paper, were probably going into the tournament as favorites to win it.

In the second game the Strikers again faced (CDL) Division 2 opponents Lakeland Futbol. The Strikers were dominant and found themselves 3-0 up with two minutes of the game left. Knowing that the maximum goal differential was 4, the Strikers were looking to get what could a vital 4th goal. However a bizarre moment brought the game to a premature end, when a Lakeland player got hit by the ball and stayed down for a short while. The Lakeland coach asked the referee to call the game, and initially the referee declined the request. The coach then asked again and this time the referee did agree to his request and called the game 2 minutes early, thus potentially denying the Strikers the chance of ending the day with their destiny in their own hands. Luckily a surprise defeat for Brandon in their game that same evening still meant we still could qualify for the final without needing any favors from others.

On the second morning of competition yet again the Strikers found themselves up against Division 2 opponents, North Lakeland. Both teams needed a win to move forward to the final. The game had very chances, but North Lakeland did take two of their chances to run out 2-0 winners and therefore qualified for the final. This left the Strikers hoping that Brandon would lose to Braden River in their last game which would mean that Lee County Strikers would go through to the final. However Brandon equalized with less than 5 minutes of their game remaining, which meant they finished level on points with Lee County Strikers, and also level on goal difference.

This meant Brandon and Lee County Strikers would need to play a mini-play off game to see who would compete in the final against North Lakeland. Unfortunately Lee County Strikers were hit with a few more problems before the game and things were looking pretty desperate. Prior to the game we knew that one of our two main offensive players would not be able to play past the third game. This meant we were left with one main forward player, Logan Mortenson, to lead the attack in the play off. However Logan had been injured in the earlier game against North Lakeland and was unable to complete the game, so we knew we had big problems. Knowing the problems we had Logan agreed to try and start the game and within the first 5 minutes we had to pull him off. Seeing how threadbare our bench was when it came to offensive players we had no choice to put our back-up keeper, Tristian Upton, on as a offensive player and he was given the one instruction to go on and make himself a hero. With 10 seconds of the game remaining, Tristian did just that. He made himself a hero! Picking up the ball in his own half he pushed the ball up field and then beat two opposition players in the sprint. When I say he beat them in a sprint, he actually started the run about 7 or 8 yards behind these guys, and an amazing burst of sprinter's speed took him past those players. Tristian then found himself in a one on one position with their goalkeeper. With amazing calmness Tristian slid the ball past the keeper and the Strikers found themselves a goal up. The referee allowed the game to restart and then immediately blew the final whistle, and the Strikers were in the final against North Lakeland, and the chance was there to exact revenge for the loss against them earlier in the day.

At this point we were playing with a patched up team and we had no choice other than to play Tristian as a striker in the final and to leave Logan Mortenson on the bench. Instead of playing our usual 4-4-2 formation we went for a 3-4-3 and decided the best form of defense was to go out and attack the opposition. The first half was very close, and there weren't too many clear cut chances and it ended 0-0 at half time. In the second half the Strikers introduced Logan into the game and they began making more chances chances before finally taking one 10 minutes from time with a nice finish from Logan. However with 4 minutes remaining North Lakeland took advantage of a defensive error to equalize and to take the game into overtime. In the first half of overtime the Strikers found themselves 3-1 up with further goals from Logan and Tristian, but North Lakeland battled back to make it 3-2 in the second period of overtime. WIth North Lakeland pushing forward looking for an equalizer, time ran out on them and the referee blew the final whistle leaving the Strikers players celebrating their victory and their first championship of the season.

Every player in the squad can take great pride in being part of this victory. Many players were called in from the bench and each and every one of them came on and played their part. When they weren't playing they were busy supporting their team mates, which is what camaraderie is all about. Special mentions go to Erek Lehnen who made quite a few great saves in the games, none more important than the one he pulled off 30 seconds prior to the Strikers getting the winner in the mini-play off. Without that save things could have been so different. Also Caleb Rodriguez, Zach Coultier and Kadin Chandler who turned in man of the match performances during the games.

The hard work really does start here, with the league season just about to begin. Winning this tournament and coming runners up in the Naples Shark Shootout last weekend, gives the U14 Boys a great platform to build upon and we should go into the Division 3 league season full of confidence knowing that we have the squad to compete with anybody.