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NHB GU11 Black Wins Cypress Cup Tournament!
Playing its well organized short-pass possession style of play, NHB GU11 Black won the Cypress Cup Tournament, Sunday August 4th. Shaking off rust from a 3-week summer break and staring at a 0-2 halftime deficit in the first match Saturday morning, an objective was set to "...win the 2nd half with good positional play to dominate possession." On goals by Jackie Peterson and Emma Gunther with a superb assist from Alexa Palombo, NHB Black pulled even with Cypress Premier Black to finish a respectable 2-2 draw.
Needing a hefty 4-goal differential in the 2nd match against OC Outlaws in order to finish first in the bracket, the girls ramped up its short pass possession and got the job done with 6 goals...including a hat trick by guest player Ella Marcus and rocket left-foot goal by Haley DeStefano.
Sunday morning's semi-final required strong defending from Michelle Keough, Kayla Martin, Katie Sparks, Claudia Capoccia and guest player Casie Carlson to keep the opponent shots on goal to a minimum for a 3-2 win and a berth in the championship final.
Facing Cypress Premier Black again, the final match for the championship medals required focused defending, organized transition and improved possession. However, an incredibly long 2/3 field punt from first-half goalkeeper Kayla Martin became the assist for Emma Gunther's juke-move around the Cypress GK and tap-in goal. A massive save from second-half goalkeeper Haley Paschal was a confidence builder for the team's desire to finish off the opponent. Excellent possession oriented play from Lia Ismagil and Cate Lawrence resulted in an eventual penetrating pass to Emma Gunther who placed a perfect cross to Ella Marcus' feet for NHB's second goal in the 2-1 championship win. Congratulations to NHB GU11 Black!
