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U10G Select Team WC Fire Captures Second Consecutive Tournament Championship at April 4/5 Pleasant Hill Soccerfest
At the Pleasant Hill Soccerfest, held April 4 and 5, WCSC’s Winter Select team WC Fire captured their s
econd consecutive U10G tournament championship with a final round 2-1 victory over Pleasant Hill’s Fury. The team’s victory comes just two weeks after winning the end-of-season Winter Select Tournament.
In preliminary rounds WC Fire first shut out Pleasant Hill’s United 2 – 0, then followed with a 5 – 0 shutout of Concord’s Outta Control. In the third round – a must-win for Fire to advance to the semi-final round – the team dug deep and held off a strong attack from Menlo Park’s Sharpshooters to claim a 2 – 1 victory and a place in the semi-finals.
In the previous Select Tournament, Fire battled Mt. Diablo’s Vortex to a hard-fought 1 –1 tie in prelim rounds. On this weekend, the two teams met again in the semi-final round and at the end of regulation it was all tied 3 – 3. In a heart-stopping shoot-out, keeper Haley Brown and striker Ava Gruener combined to send Fire on to the championship round.
Fire got off to a strong and early start in the final round, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes, and then never looked back. A tough defense kept the Pleasant Hill Fury at bay, allowing only one goal through the end of the match as Fire claimed its second tournament championship and wrapped up its Select season. The tournament team included Fire regulars Haley Brown, Gillian Cabral, Caroline Fuqua, Ava Gruener, Rebecca Proctor and Elise Stankus, who were joined by three players – Sophia Runte, Kelsey Thompson and Sydney Weaver – from Walnut Creek’s other U10G Winter Select team, the Dynamites.
WC Fire Wins First Place in U10G Winter Select Tournament
In this year’s Area 2C/2D Winter Select Soccer Tournament, held March 21 and 22, Walnut Creek’s under-10 girls team, WC Fire, captured the tournament championship with a decisive final-round 5-0 victory over Pleasant Hill/Martinez Rush. In preliminary rounds on Saturday, WC Fire had two tie matches before scoring a “must-win” 3-1 victory over PHMSA’s Psychochicks to advance to the semi-final round.
In Sunday morning’s semi-final match against PHMSA Adrenaline, a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation led to two overtime periods before WC Fire scored the game-winning goal. Then in the Sunday afternoon championship match against PHMSA Rush, WC Fire completely dominated the pitch with a season-best 5-0 victory. The tournament concludes a successful 6-1-1 Winter Select season for the WC Fire team: Haley Brown, Gillian Cabral, Caroline Fuqua, Ava Gruener, Sophie Kurland, Sydney Polich, Rebecca Proctor, Lacey Smith, Elise Stankus and Jenny Stark.
