Slammers kick way to title

It was a perfect ending to a very, long trip.

The Newport Beach-based Slammers Futbol Club under-14 girls team

captured its second consecutive national title Sunday, defeating FC

Delco Fusion 4-2 in penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 tie in

regulation at Germantown, Maryland to capture its age bracket at the

2003 Snickers U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships.

The victory came after Delco had defeated the Slammers 2-0 on

Friday in a meaningless, round-robin game. Both teams had already

qualified for the championship game.

It also came at the end of a journey that has seen the Slammers

capture a tournament title in two different countries, having gone

undefeated in Sweden at the Gothia Cup, sponsored by Nike, before

playing in Maryland.

“It’s hard, very hard to take girls this age out of their element

and away from home,” Slammers Coach Ziad Khoury said. “But they

focused and accomplished something that probably won’t be done or a

very long time.”

Delco grabbed an early lead Sunday, when Julie Edwards scored in

the 11th minute, using her chest to send home a cross from Justin

Woolner. It was the Pennsylvania team’s first shot of the game.

“We came out nervous and didn’t play our best in the first couple

of minutes, (but) after they scored, we started putting it together

and playing our best,” the Slammers Tanya Emerson said.

Emerson tied the score 1-1 in the 63rd minute, following the

rebound of her own shot and blasting a 10-yard shot inside the right

post. It was the first goal Delco had allowed in four games in the

tournament.

Needing penalty kicks to decide the title, the Slammers had the

advantage of having practiced them in their Saturday evening practice

session.

“We were pretty confident before we took the penalty kicks,”

Emerson said. “We stayed (Saturday) until every single person made

one, and then we stayed after practice was supposed to be over and

took some more. That helped us get it down.”

Slammers goalkeeper saved the first shot by Delco and Delco missed

the goal on its second shot. Mo Press, Megan Jesolva, Cindy Mendoza

and Lauren Hernandez converted Newport Beach’s first four kicks to

give the Slammers the victory.

The club also swept the three honors handed out in each age

division after the tournament. They received the Snickers Fair Play

Award, goalie Lauren Gregston was named the recipient of the adidas

Golden Glove Award and Christen Press received the adidas Golden Boot

award.

The Slammers reached the championship game with a 3-0 victory over

Atlanta Tophat on Thursday and a 3-2 win over Eclipse (Libertyville,

Ill.) in their opener Wednesday.

The tournament, a year-long competition beginning on a local

level, includes champions from four regions. The Slammers won the

California state title and then the Far West regional to qualify for

the national championships.

“This has been a long year, but this team has done something that

probably no other team has done,” Khoury said. “They won the (Coast

Soccer) League Cup, the Surf Cup, the State Cup, the Nike U.S.

finals, the Gothia Cup and now a national championship.”