IFA West Boys Win State Cup
Intercontinental Football Academy (IFA) of New England would like to congratulate the IFA West 2014 Pre-MLS Boys Blue who were crowned Massachusetts Youth Soccer State Champions this weekend.
The boys coached by Brian Anderson defeated SFC New England 3-0 at Progin Park in Lancaster. It capped an impressive campaign from the U12 Boys who saw off AC Independence, FC Boston Bolts and Western Utd Pioneers in Saturday’s semi-final, scoring 15 goals on their way to the championship.
“I’m incredibly proud of our team’s State Cup run, but just as proud of our entire 2014 player pool,” said Head Coach Brian Anderson. “The competitive environment we’ve built in training — where every player pushes each other to be better — is what truly drives our success and the development of all the players in the group.”
Defender Gavin Callery was named tournament MVP whilst goalkeeper Brayden Garcia radiated calm and came up big on contested shots and loose balls in the box. The winning squad was in full: Emilio Andre, Sam Baidoo, Gavin Callery, Brayden Garcia, Caleb Gendron, Zach Hensch, Greyson Krause, Davein Miller, Brady Owen, Corey Richey, Bryce Stula, Landon Tellier, Yunus Ucar and Jacob Watson.
Remarkably IFA had a representative in all six final matchups played on Sunday. The additional five teams came up just short, finishing as runners-up.
On the girls side, representation came from our IFA West DPL girls teams. After a 0-0 in regulation the 2014 girls were defeated 3-2 in PKs by NEFC Central. The U13s and U14s both lost out to SFC, 4-0 and 1-0 respectively.
At BU12 the IFA 2013 South NAL lost narrowly to SFC by a score of 1-0. The winners had to overcome IFA opposition in the semis also, when they overcome the IFA EDS CEN 2013 Boys Blue on PKs. At BU14, it was another narrow defeat with the EDS CEN 2012 Boys Blue losing out 2-1 to Select North.
The 2014 West Boys have now guaranteed passage to the US Youth Soccer National Championships and will compete against top teams from across the country in Salt Lake City, UT next summer. Each Age Group is organized into two 32 team competitions with Tier 1 having 10 National Pathway competitors and the top 22 state associations. Tier 2 is the remaining 32 state associations. Each tier is broken up into 8 groups of 4 teams. Massachusetts is currently in Tier 1 for both genders.
