Penn Fusion, Delaware Rush find success in first leg of U.S. Youth Soccer national league

The first leg of the U.S. Youth Soccer National League kicked off in North Carolina last week with 10 teams from five area clubs - Penn Fusion, FC Montco, Lower Merion SC, Lehigh Valley United, and HMMS Eagle FC - competing across the five age divisions.

Delaware Rush’s U17 team and the Penn Fusion U15s were the only to return home without any losses while the Penn Fusion U19s found the back of the net 21 times in the four games.

U19
Penn Fusion ‘98 exploded in their first game with a 12-1 win over Maryland club Pipeline SC. Quinn Dudek and Frank DeRosa each had hat tricks, Beckham Sibiski had a brace and Aiden McFadden, Samuel Brown, Evan Anderson and Stach Jaran added goals.

DeRosa had a brace and McFadden, Jaran and Richard Schlentz added goals in a 5-2 win over Utah club USA Premier while Maxwell Zandi and Ramon Gallegos scored in a 2-1 win over Minnesota club St. Croix.

Their lone set-back was a 3-2 loss on a 90th minute goal to Illinois club FC United. DeRosa and McFadden both scored in the losing effort.

DeRosa finished the first leg with six goals to lead all scorers and the team is one point behind FC United in the standings with a 3-1-0 record.

U18
Delaware Rush ‘99 and FC Montco Die Mannschaft both finished the first leg with 1-2-1 records.

Delaware Rush opened play with a 2-1 win over Illinois club LTSC Union with Gavin Ford scoring a 70th minute winner.

Bryce Wallace scored his second goal of the weekend in a 1-1 draw with Ohio club CUP and scored again in 2-1 loss to Arizona club SC Del So while Owen Johansson scored the lone goal in a 2-1 loss to LA Galaxy South Bay.

FC Montco Die Mannschaft opened with a 2-1 loss to New York club Dix Hills with Logan Schwartz getting the lone goal, but bounced back with a 2-2 draw against South Carolina club CESA thanks to goals on each side of halftime from Coron Harrison and Tyson Hichman.

A lopsided 4-1 loss to FC Dallas Premier (Spencer Higgins scoring the lone goal) preceded a lopsided 4-1 win over Georgia club KSA. Nicholas Jennings scored the game winner in the 53rd minute and Christopher Donovan added insurance a minute later while FC Montco also benefited from a pair of own goals.

U17
The U17 age group had the biggest representation from the greater Philadelphia region with Delaware Rush, Lower Merion SC, HMMS Eagle FC and Lehigh Valley United.

Delaware Rush ‘00 won all four of their matches against Houstonians, BRYC (Virginia), TSC Hurricane (Oklahoma) and Tennessee SC while outscoring their opponents 11-2.

Niklas Powell scored a goal in all four games, including the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Tennessee SC. Casey Kurlej had three goals. The team is actually in second place on goal differential behind Illinois club Raiders FC, which also won all four of their first leg matches.

Lower Merion SC Sabertooth Rats are seven points behind in the group after posting a 1-1-2 through the first four games.

Their lone win came over Tennessee SC with Sean Touey and Philip Burckhardt providing the offense and Luke Smith picking up one of two clean sheets on the weekend (the other was a scoreless draw with TSC Hurricanes). Jared Dillon added a pair of goals in a 3-2 loss to BRYC and a 1-1 draw with Houstonians while Burckhardt also scored in the loss.

HMMS Eagle FC ‘00 Titans went 1-3-0 with their lone win a 3-0 victory over Baltimore Bays. Orlando Monroy had a brace and Max Radosavljevic had goals in the win. Monroy had the only other goal in the four games in a 2-1 loss to Illinois club Libertyville. Their other two losses were 1-0 shutouts to Seattle United and Utah club Sparta.

Lehigh Valley United 2000 Black was also 1-3-0. Their lone win came on a 75th minute goal from Luke Brautigam to beat Georgia club United FA and Patrick Adams had their only other goal in a 3-1 loss to North Carolina club CASL. Baltimore Celtic and CUP both beat LVU 1-0 with CUP scoring a 90th minute game-winner.

U16
Penn Fusion ‘01 Elite went 1-3-0 with a pair of 1-0 losses to Illinois club Galaxy SC and FC Golden State and a 5-2 loss to Arizona club Valparaiso United.

Michael Hewes and Corron Hovington scored four minutes apart in the first half before surrendering five second half goals in the loss to Valparaiso United. Kevin Kiefer had a brace and Aden Slifer added the game-winner in the 75th minute to top South Carolina United.

U15
Penn Fusion picked up a pair of wins and a pair of draws to finish the first leg two points off the leader in the Blue group.

Brandon Cairy scored in a 1-1 draw with Michigan Wolves and in a 1-0 win over California club Boca Juniors while Andrew Blackwell had the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Michigan Jaguars and in a 1-1 draw with Solar Chelsea.

Delaware Rush ‘02 struggled with lopsided losses in all four games. Ndeh Tima scored the lone goal for the Delaware club in a 6-1 loss to Michigan club Midwest United and Oryem Kilama had the only other goal to draw the game level in a 5-1 loss to Wisconsin club SC Waukesha.

South Carolina club USA MP beat the Rush 4-0 and St. Louis Scott Gallagher won 7-0.