NorCal Premier Soccer Match Day #11 kicked off its Spring portion of the season with a multitude of exciting Champions League openers, that included the talent, skill, and drama that fans have come to expect from our top leagues. On the girls side of the action, West Coast Wild picked up a valuable 3 points thanks to a 5-1 thrashing of PSV Union. Over on the boys side, 2015 NPL National Champions, Santa Clara Sporting, began their quest to reclaim their title with a 2-1 victory over a strong Placer side.
U19 GIRLS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
3/11
West Coast Wild
5-1
PSV Union
Sheehan 4, Sisneros
Huang
West Coast Wild got their Champions League campaign off to an emphatic start with an impressive 5-1 win over PSV Union on Saturday afternoon at Cateyano Park. Devyn Gilfoy fed Delanie Sheehan who calmly finished her 1v1 with the PSV goalkeeper to put West Coast ahead 1-0. Sheehan doubled the lead with a nice finish from a Kylie Martinez corner to put West Coast up 2-0 at the half. In the second half, Sheehan continued to dominate the match in the second half as she set up the third goal scored by Lauren Sisneros. PSV Union would score next to get back into the game after a well placed finish by Meghan Huang. But, Sheehan was to much as she broke through to score her third of the match before walking in her fourth goal as West Coast finished it off, 5-1.
U17 BOYS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
3/12
SC Sporting
2-1
Placer United
Lirios, Flores-Hernandez
Finley
In a huge opening weekend match up between two of the early favorites in the U17 Boys Champions League, Santa Clara Sporting held off Placer United 2-1 at the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park. Sporting were the aggressors early in the match but squandered some early chances, but finally broke through in the 27th minute when Andrew Lirios burried a close range effort after a scrum in the box. After the breakthrough Sporting were up two minutes later when Luis Flores-Hernandez buried his right-footed effort into the lower corner. Sporting remained comfortable ahead but could not put Placer away and Placer got back into the game when a cross by Dylan Finley resulted in a miscommunication in the Sporting backline and the ball ended up in the back of the net. This led to Placer pressing in the final minutes, however, they could not find the equalizer and Sporting held on for the 2-1 win.
