1995 BOYS  

Receiving the ultimate compliment bestowed on a youth player, goalkeeper Joseph Ghitis was openly compared to the young Kasey Keller, who would become the Nation’s greatest goalkeeping legend as an adult. The comparison came from no other than Mr. Keller’s former national youth coach.

 

Though no comparison was made to his famous Brazilian namesake, Romario Bernard also caught the attention of the National coaches. The crafty mid-fielder displayed the form that had helped to propel his West Pines U-12 team to the Triple Crown during the 2007-08 season when the Richard Jobson coached team took home the League, Regional and President’s Cup titles.

 

Both Joseph and Romario were selected to the National pool and will be attending the U.S. Soccer National U-14 Identification Camp in Boston, Massachusetts from August 3-9, along with players chosen from across the country.

 

Six other members of that WPU team also attracted the attention of National and Regional coaches. Joshua Castellanos and Bryan Gonzalez were two of only seven players selected as alternates to the National pool and Joshua Creighton, Martin Taylor, Alex Morotta and Darien Rios all received invitations to attend the ODP Southern Regional Trials to be held shortly.

 

The success of these players has served to inspire the younger members of their WPU team, those born in 1996, to emulate the performance of their teammates when participating in their own age group trials in the coming months ahead.

The West Pines Under-19 boys returned to the site of last season’s championship victory in Ft. Myers to, once again, emerge as Florida State Cup Champions. Having finished on top of their group in games played in Pensacola earlier in May 2008, West Pines was matched against cross-town rivals Weston in one of the semi-final games.

 

An intense match saw West Pines fight back from a goal down and the ejection of their goalkeeper to equalize midway during the second half when Evan Kluge provided a perfect cross for fellow striker Anthony “AJ” McNab to head home. Tied at one at the end of regulation play, West Pines stormed forward in an effort to find the winner during the overtime period. Kluge’s tremendous volley from a long throw-in by Anthony Garcia two minutes before the whistle ended Weston’s bid to force the game into the penalty phase. The long-awaited rematch with the other semi-final winner, Hillsborough County United (HCU) was finally at hand.

 

As under-16’s, and needing only a tied game to advance to the Final-4 and real prospects of winning the State title, West Pines was subjected to highly suspicious officiating when suffering a 3-2 loss to HCU in the final seconds of their qualifying game at that team’s home field. With haunting memories of that game still lingering, West Pines succumbed to early pressure and an HCU goal before gradually taking control of the game. Squandered scoring opportunities by the South Florida squad found them still seeking the equalizer at the half.

 

Taking the game to a level their opponents could not match it was all Pines in the second half. The controversial ejection of West Pines defender, Oshane Moodie, only served to ignite a team now playing some of its best soccer to date. A nifty attacking movement involving five West Pines players finally broke through as mid-fielder Shawn Chin slotted home the elusive tying goal. From there on it was all West Pines as wave after wave of attacking plays wore down the HCU defense until Kluge out dueled several players to head in the winner. Two minutes later West Pines had completed their quest to repeat as Florida State Champions.

 

“This was much more satisfying than last year’s win”, said West Pines coach Anthony March. He continued, “During the entire State Cup run we had so many starters out each game due to injuries, but still managed to win even when both Final-4 games were played down a man and coming from behind.” 

 

The squad now heads to North Carolina on June 18 as the State representative in the Southern Regional Championship Series with hopes of bettering their 2007 semi-final finish. The team seeks the support of the community in defraying some of the costs involved with the trip and can be contacted at (954) 430-7548.  

 

 

 The Team

 

Standing: (L-R) – Aaron Benttrinder, Evan Kluge, Oshane Moodie, Dean Greenland, Oscar Vilchez, Joel Martinez, Andre Mittoo, Tyler Mosko,

Brian Cardozo, Alex Jean-Pierre, Nicholas Lue-Young, Coach Anthony March.

 

Kneeling: (L-R) – Shawn Chin, Christian Palpal-Latoc, Andre McCreath, Nigel Blair, Anthony McNab, Justin Williams, Jose Rico, Carlos Bernal, Glen Thomas     

 

West Pines United Boys U13 were elated in their victory during the FYSA State Cup Finals held May 17^th and 18^th in Pensacola, Florida. 

 

During all three stages of the competition the boys trained hard and were motivated always with their eyes on the prize. In the first round of the State Cup they prepared for a competitive game against CFU Stingrays in Weston, but the competition was too much for the Stingrays and the game was shut down 6-0. West Pines, never underestimating any team came back into the competition against HC United just as strong and with a vigorous defense back, shutting out HCU boys 3-0. The game against Kendall Soccer in Sarasota, did not go uneventful as players unprepared for the vigor the West Pines boys brought to the competition and were in awe as WPU held steady even with one of our key players out of the game due to a second yellow card. At that point WPU boys stepped up the game to finish strong. HC United came to Sarasota more prepared to win after their first loss against the WPU boys in the first round. Again, our boys stood their ground in the game and defeated HC United 2-1.

 

At the Final Four round, the boys overpowered and eliminated the undefeated Countryside Soccer Club 2-1 to move onto the Finals. The following day, the team held steadfast against competitor Braden River Soccer Club during the 70 minute game where neither team was successful in scoring any goals. The game ended in 0-0 tie, however, the WPU boys came into the twenty minutes overtime with will and determination. Eager to defeat Braden River, they successfully scored during the first 10 minute half, when Jordan Gallardo assisted by Andres Payne, maneuvered and conquered Braden River’s defense to score the game winning goal, earning the West Pines U-13 boys their first State Cup Title with a 1-0 win. 

 

West Pines U13 boys are: Diego Aguirre, Alex Borimoff, Cameron Brice, Brian Caufield, Renzo Edery, Jordan Gallardo, Myles Holgate, Damion Lewis, Lucas Mondino, Nicholas Nelson, Andres Payne, Nicholas Polanco, Gabriel Pedraza, Andres Pereira, Tommy Kosoko, Juan Diego Sicco, Andrew Villafane, and Shane Moo-Young. The Team is Coached by Henry Pedraza.