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Boys U10 Black wins Spring Cup Championship
On May 7th, 14th and 15th, at the San Bernardino Soccer Complex, the NHB Boys U10 Black team, coached by Dave Sias and Matt Eschenburg, won the Coast Soccer League Spring Cup Tournament.
On May 7th, the first day of pool play, NHB was matched up against Manhattan Beach Surf and Sand. Our boys came out flat and made four mistakes; each of which resulted in goals against and a final score line loss of 4-0.
On May 14th, NHB matched up against a very tough team from Fram and were able to grind out a 4-4 tie. In their final pool play match on the 14th, the boys rebounded from a prior Spring league regular season loss to Los Gouchos with a 3-1 win! At the conclusion of pool play, NHB was locked in a three-way tie for 3rd place, with only the top four teams in their pool advancing.
Upon returning to the field on Sunday, May 15th, and after much confusion by the on-site tournament personnel as to which two teams were going to advance to the knock-out round and which one would not advance, NHB was forced to participate in penalty kick tie breaker in the pouring rain just to move on. Due to world class saves by NHB’s goalie, along with pin point penalty shots by NHB’s players, the boys advanced to the
knock-out round (semi-finals) of the tournament to once again play Manhattan Beach Surf and Sand.
In the boys’ semi-final match, they implemented a strategic onslaught of pressure, coupled with unbelievable saves by NHB’s goalie and timely goals by NHB’s attacking players , to avenge the teams prior pool play loss to Manhattan Beach Surf and Sand. When the dust settled, NHB moved onto the finals with a 3-1 victory.
In the finals, NHB was faced FC Golden State, a silver level team, which had not lost a game or even conceded a goal in each of their prior matches in the tournament. In fact, FC Golden State had outscored their opponents up to the finals by a combined score of 16-0. Once again, the NHB boys took the game to their opponents with continued shots on goal,
hard challenges, supportive defensive team play and consistent goalie saves. All of this hard work allowed NHB to take a 2-0 lead into half-time. Within minutes of the second half beginning, FC Golden State struck back to being the score to 2-1. It was then that NHB’s true colors began to shine, instead of wilting to the pressure, they turned the tables and got the ever important next goal to take the score to 3-1. At the final whistle, the NHB boys U10 Black team had won their first championship in their first final by a score of 3-1.
Given the hard road of the 2010/2011 Fall and Spring seasons, along with the countless hours of training, this first championship was especially sweet and memorable for the boys, their families and their coaches. GREAT JOB BOYS; LETS GET ANOTHER ONE!!!
