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SCA 93 Boys take 1st Place in Rogue Valley Cup |
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
 For the second year in a row, the SCA 93 boys, coached by Ian Mork, never trailed in a single game in winning the premier division in its age group at the annual Rogue Valley Cup tournament near Medford over Memorial Day weekend. The 93 boys continue to play so well in Ashland, Oregon that it ought to become a regular act at the Shakespeare Festival. This time it was a different story/same result. SCA relied on solid goaltending and a steady defense this year to post a tie and four close victories, capped by Monday's 3-2 triumph over Santos of Reno. Michael Gotham scored on a header off a brilliant corner kick by teammate Taylor Ramos then Hugo Zuniga scored the last two of his six goals in the tournament to account for the final margin. Yet it was the defense of Lupe Centero, Austin Kois, Graham Miller, and Johnny Moon in particular and the goalkeeping of Dylan Phillips and Tyler Butke that kept Reno from rallying. Butke made the most critical save of the game in the 54th minute when he dove in front of a hard-charging David Duenez Guerra of Reno to prevent a game-tieing goal.
Guerra, the tournament MVP, injured his left ankle in the collision and, in a show of good sportsmanship, Centero and Zuniga helped carry him off the field to the sideline, where Guerra remained the rest of the 70-minute game. Zuniga was a one-man act for coach Ian Mork's team on the first day of the U-14 Premier tourney. Zuniga scored both goals (one off an assist by Carlos Valencia) in a 2-1 win over RVSC Blackhawk of Medford, the same team SCA best in the championship game last year. Then Zuniga scored the team's only goal in a 1-1 tie with ASC United of Ashland. On Sunday, SCA stepped up its defense and spread out its scoring. J.P. Prince and Cameron Wehrfritz tallied goals to support a combined shutout by Phillips and Butke in SCA's 2-0 victory over the Bend Heat and, in a 3-0 win over the Arcata Steelhead, keeper Easton Palmer went the distance for the shutout and Blake Davis and Ramos joined Zuniga in scoring goals. That set up Monday's title game between SCA and Santos. "We didn't come this far to get second," Ramos, SCA's team captain, said before the kickoff. He was right. Playing without injured star Victor Sanchez (deep thigh bruise), SCA counted on its defense plus contributions from Daniel Lemos and Benjamin Tarango to ward off Reno and collect its second consecutive championship in Ashland.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 May 2007 )
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