The West Pines United boys -16 team finished the Southern Premier League season with two big wins. Shutout victories over top of the table Gwinnett Phoenix Red and cellar dwellers NASA Elite gave WPU six important points and bumped them to a third place finish in the ten-team league. Unbeaten in their last four games, the late surge is good news as the team heads into a tough stretch of games in December.
Playing against two teams from Georgia at the FYSA facility in Auburndale, WPU faced last place NASA Elite on Saturday. Determined to break out of a goal scoring funk, Neicolance Regent, assisted by Jamar Campion Hindes, got the boys off to a fast start with his fourth-minute goal. Despite controlling the game, West Pines couldn’t find the net again and the 1-0 score held through the half.
The breakthrough came in the second half, as the boys added three more. Samuel Vinson notched two---one from a free kick and another from a penalty won by Jon Ross Walker ---and Regent added his second of the game in the 69th minute. The 4-0 final score was West Pines’ highest tally since September and a hopeful sign going into the next day’s game against League leader Phoenix Red, who entered the weekend unbeaten in seven matches.
Again, WPU showed a stingy defense against the strong Georgia side. Jacob Murray’s stellar play in goal in the second half (five saves) backed a defensive unit of Vinson and Andre Blackman on the outside and Samuel Malnick and Austin Sandel in the middle, while the attack was able to produce one goal in each half (Hindes in the first and Mark Simpson in the second). Determined mid-field play from Jose Novas and Aaron Braun slowed the Phoenix attack and WPU got their best victory of the campaign 2-0, and a third place finish in this competitive league.
Coach Richard Jobson was pleased with the weekend’s results, especially the signs of greater cohesion that followed a couple of weeks of tough practices. “We are a team with a lot of new faces. It always takes some time to get to know each other, to read each other and play instinctively. We are getting better at that, we are improving,” said Jobson. With the first fixtures of the USSYSA National League and the Disney College Showcase both on the schedule for December, he knows how important it will be for the team to continue to make progress. But the determination showed in recent matches offers hope for the up-coming challenges and an exciting end to 2011.
