Q&A with Eric DeJulio

Blue Valley Northwest's Eric DeJulio, a defender and captain on the Sporting Kansas City Under-18 Juniors this season in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, has logged a LOT of minutes for the Juniors each of the last three seasons. After leading all players on the U16 Juniors in 2009-2010 with 29 games started, he then started every match for the squad in 2010-2011.

Now off to a strong start in 2011-2012, he's the only player to have started all six matches for Paul Rideout's team and his play within the academy led to his recruitment by Division I powerhouse Creighton, to whom he recently signed his National Letter of Intent to play college soccer for in the fall.

SB Nation contributor Alex Englen caught up with Eric for a Q&A on his college plans and his experience with the Sporting Kansas City Juniors. Check it out!

KC Star All-Metro

Congratulations go out to all 15 Sporting Kansas City Juniors players chosen to the Kansas City Star's All-Metro Boy's Soccer teams. The selections were announced in Sunday's edition of the newspaper (shown on right), with our very own Derek Schrick being named the All-Metro boys soccer player of the year! Here's a rundown on the honorees:

First Team: FWD Shane Woods (Kearney, senior), MF Derek Schrick (Rockhurst, senior), MF Chris Tuso (Blue Valley NW, senior), Matt Peterson (Blue Valley North, junior), Clay Stewart (Olathe South, junior), GK Jacole Turner (Lee's Summit North, senior)

Second Team: FWD Steve Enna (St. James Academy, sophomore), MF Andrew Brown (St. Thomas Aquinas, senior), DEF Eric DeJulio (Blue Valley NW, senior), DEF Julian Ramirez (Blue Springs, junior)

Honorable Mention: FWD Garrett Pulliam (Blue Valley West, senior), MF David Leichty (Shawnee Mission South, junior), MF Joey Piatczyc (Lee's Summit, sophomore), MF Taylor Walter (Blue Valley, senior), GK Evan Wright (Blue Valley, senior)

DeJulio Chooses Creighton

As ESPN told its thousands of Twitter followers earlier today, Sporting Kansas City Juniors defender Eric DeJulio has verbally committed to Creighton! The Bluejays are coming off an impressive 2011 season in which they appeared in the semifinals of the NCAA College Cup before ultimately falling 4-1 in a shootout to Charlotte in Hoover, Alabama.

In post-season rankings, Creighton finished second among Division 1 Men’s Soccer Programs in RPI while the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) deemed them fourth in their end-of-the-year poll. Creighton -- alma mater of Sporting KC first team defender Seth Sinovic -- held a 21-2-1 record at the conclusion of the 2011 season, maintaining an undefeated (14-0-0) status at home.

DeJulio earned recognition through his performances with the Sporting Kansas City Juniors, as well as with his high school team, Blue Valley Northwest. DeJulio helped lead the Juniors to a second place finish in the Frontier Conference last season and he is the only Sporting Kansas City Juniors player to start all six games of the current 2011 US Soccer Development Academy season.

DeJulio captained Blue Valley Northwest and served as the anchor of his teams defensive line, leading them to the final four in Class 6A in Kansas. DeJulio scored six goals and added two assists, earning him the third highest points total on the team at the conclusion of the 2011 high school season.

DeJulio joins several other Sporting Kansas City Juniors players who have made their college choices, including Andrew Brown (Bradley), Nate Opperman (Evansville), Daniel Hare (Loyola), David Isaacks (Rhode Island), Evan Wright (Saint Louis) and Derek Schrick (Southern Methodist). To view a list of 2012 high school boys' soccer NCAA Division 1 verbal commitments on ESPN.com, click here.

Shootout vs San Jose at GA Cup

Photos taken by Rick Yeatts

Sporting Kansas City and the San Jose Earthquakes lit up the scoreboard on Friday night at the 2011 U17 Generation adidas Cup in Frisco, Texas as the two MLS academy teams combined for the highest scoring game of the tournament thus far in a 4-4 draw that ended with Sporting Kansas City prevailing 5-4 on six rounds in the penalty shootout.

After falling behind 2-0 in the game's opening minutes, Sporting Kansas City fought back to even the score at 2-2 as Eric DeJulio twice capitalized on corner kicks for the Juniors on each side of halftime. But San Jose responded instantly with the first of two second-half strikes as they re-gained their two-goal advantage and looked to have the victory sealed with the clock winding down.

But Sporting Kansas City came back in dramatic fashion as Nate Opperman scored twice in the final six minutes of the match to force the penalty kick shootout. The first goal came on an assist from Seo-In Kim, who cut inside and laid the ball back for Opperman to bury his shot from near the penalty mark. Then the equalizer was a long-range header from Opperman at the top of the penalty area that looped over the Earthquakes keeper off a cross from the right side.

Goalkeeper Evan Wright was again in between the posts for Sporting Kansas City's second penalty shootout of the tournament. After making three stops against the Seattle Sounders earlier in the week, Wright was again up to the test as he stopped two of San Jose's attempts. DeJulio clinched the victory with his converted penalty in the sixth round, after previous makes by Schrick, Lennon, Stanley and Opperman.

Sporting Kansas City will play their fifth and final match of the tournament against the Chicago Fire at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday. Follow @SKCJuniors on Twitter for updates or visit the tournament homepage on MLSSoccer.com.

Six Juniors Appear in Reserve League

Sporting Kansas City played their first MLS Reserve League match at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on Tuesday morning and six of our Juniors players got onto the field alongside academy products Jon Kempin and Kevin Ellis and the rest of the Sporting KC squad. Congrats to Eric DeJulio, Paul Oliver, Derek Schrick, Jacole Turner, Nate Opperman and Seo-In Kim for the call-ups!

Read the full recap on SportingKC.com and check out the slideshow below for dozens of photos of the Juniors in action, courtesy of Taylor Allan.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

3 Juniors called up for Colorado reserve match

The SKC reserves are in Colorado on Sunday, and three Juniors have made the roster. Each player selected has been called up before, with Wes White and Nate Opperman featuring in previous matches. Wes White looks to continue his streak of getting into each reserve match this season, while Nate Opperman hopes to make his first reserve appearance since the Houston Dynamo match in early April. Eric DeJulio was selected but did not play in the last match in Chicago.

The game is set for 12pm on Sunday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Follow @SKCgameday for live twitter updates.

Juniors Tuesday update

Sporting KC Juniors U16's defender Eric DeJulio and forward Wes White travelled with the senior team for their Reserve League match today in Chicago. White got into the match in the 81^st minute -- his third straight appearance in the Reserve League -- and helped the team earn a 1-1 draw.

Check out this story from TopDrawerSoccer.com for another U16 SKC Junior that is getting some attention. Midfielder Derek Schrick is a co-captain and is tied for the team lead in goals scored.

Speaking of stats, Jordan Rideout is leading the U18’s with 9 goals so far, while Nate Opperman is leading the U16’s with 6.

Juniors return from Colorado with mixed results

The Sporting KC U16 and U18 Juniors squads returned from Colorado late Sunday night with mixed results. The U16 side pulled out a 1-1 draw against Real Colorado on Saturday, and defeated Colorado Rush AJ Auxerre 3-1 on Sunday. Saturday’s goal came from Eduardo Moreno who would also score in Sunday’s match. Wes White and Nate Opperman tallied the other two goals against the Rush on Sunday. With the positive results the Sporting KC U16’s remain in first place in the Central Conference’s Frontier Division. Sporting are now 5 points clear of Scott Gallagher and 6 points clear of the third placed Colorado Rapids with 11 games played.

The U18’s had a bit of a tougher weekend, dropping results to Real Colorado (1-5) and Colorado Rush (0-2). The lone goal for the 18’s came from Garrett Pulliam. Despite the losses to the first and third placed teams, Sporting remains second in the Frontier Division. Sporting full team goalkeeper, Jonathan Kempin accompanied the U18’s to Colorado, starting both games.

Wes White and Eric DeJulio were called up for the reserve match in Chicago tomorrow at 11am. Stay close to twitter as we’ll be tweeting live updates throughout the match.

Team Dinner and Baltimore Bays

We arrived here is Greensboro on Thursday Mid-day after a very early departure from MCI. Had a few problems at Enterprise Rental car (of course) before finally getting vehicles and driving to the hotel. Jimmy Johns is across the street from the Hyatt and has been the go-to for lunch. And man they are FAST.

Last night(Friday) we played our first match against Baltimore Bays the #1seed. The game was super intense from from the beginning and we got on the board first. Jordan Rideout chipped the keeper and the goal was big time. Minutes later we had a PK after their GK fouled us. Derek Scrick stepped up to take it, but unfortunately it was saved. A few minutes later...they got a PK on us after one of the Bays "flopped" inside our 18.

They converted the PK to equalize the match 1-1. Their were a couple more opportunities created by us in the second half by Lucas Throckmorton and Nate Opperman; but none went in. Bays had a free kick in about the 60min that they converted which made the score 1-2 which stood as the final. Such a bummer, our boys played so well and the game could have gone either way. Our defenders, especially Konner Knoll and Eric DeJulio played amazing along with keeper Jon Kempin.

We play Dallas Texans this evening and we just saw them eating Steak and Shake for lunch...hopefully it has an effect on them! haha