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)

News and Notes

High school soccer season is in full swing as postseason competition is already upon us! Here is a sampling of some of the top news and notes from Sporting Kansas City Juniors players in the area...

• Check out the video below of Garrett Pulliam's goal and celebration in Blue Valley West's win over Bishop Miege.

• Derek Schrick and Jacole Turner each earned spots on the ESPNHS Starting XI as top high school players in the state of Missouri, and were also named to the top 150 college prospects for the Class of 2012. Fort Osage High School's Billy Vigil also received recognition on the list.
• Speaking of Schrick, ESPNHS talked to him and his Rockhurst teammates about the team yoga sessions they take part in. Check out the video and story here.
• Sporting Kansas City Juniors players Nate Opperman and Clay Stewart have been influential for Olathe South this season as they won the Summit League.
• Also in Kansas, Shawnee Mission South head coach Travis Gatewood credited SKC Juniors player David Leichty for his leadership on the team this season.
• At Blue Valley Northwest, two SKC Juniors are captaining a team with state ambitions as Chris Tuso is leading the team in goals and Eric DeJulio is anchoring the defense.
• Check out the news feature below on Liberal High School's 11th straight Western Athletic Conference title, courtesy of SKC Juniors player Eduardo Moreno's OT goal in a 1-0 win over Dodge City.

• On the local college scene, congrats to the UMKC duo of Jordan Rideout and Michael Oakley, who were both named to TopDrawerSoccer.com's Top 20 Players to Watch in the Summit League. Rideout scored his third goal of the year in the Roos 1-1 draw at Oral Roberts on Saturday, while Oakley has started all but one game in defense as a freshman.

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.

Home Field Advantage

Another weekend, same results for the U18s. They were named Top Drawer Soccer's Team of the Week last week and followed suit with two more wins this past weekend.

At the Sporting Club Training Center at Swope Park, the U18s took out Minnesota Thunder 2-0 on Saturday and beat Shattuck-Saint Mary’s 3-2 on Sunday.

Tom Adams scored for the third straight game, opening with a goal in the second minute against the Thunder. Andrew Mobberley and Jordy Rideout also netted one goal apiece. Sunday's game-winner (broke a 2-2 deadlock) came in the last minute of stoppage time from Garrett Pulliam on a breakaway down the right side of the pitch. Nothing like a perfect ending to the weekend to bring the U18s into second place in the USSDA, one point behind Real Colorado.

The U16s dominated the Thunder on Saturday, beating them 3-0, a team they previously drew 0-0 in Minnesota. Captain Eric DeJulio scored the first goal of the game in the first half. From there, SKC rolled with Nate Opperman and Steven Enna also finding the back of the net. The U16s lost on Sunday 0-1 to Saint Mary’s, but still hold a nice four-point lead in the table.

Enna, along with Dante Guerrero, DeBray Hollimon, Joey Piatczyc, Cole Stevenson and Jake Wood were brought up from the U15 squad for the weekend since their team was off. Head Coach Jon Parry was pleased with how the younger kids performed when given the chance to play with the U16s.

Juniors Find Success in Colorado

The U18s and U16s traveled to Denver last weekend and played Colorado Rapids both Saturday and Sunday.

U16s
The Saturday game (both game were v Colorado Rapids) we won 4-0, in 40 mph wind on 86 degree heat & high altitude.

The first goal was scored by Lucas Throckmorton. Austin Esparza had come off the field with a concussion & Lucas replaced him. Jordy croosed from the right hand side for Lucas to tap in from close range with his first touch of the ball. The other 3 goals came in the 2nd half. Garret crossed for Nate to score our 2nd. Then Jordy crossed for Lucas to score a great goal for the 3rd goal. The final goal of the game was a 35 yard shot from Jordy over the keeper's head.

Sunday game: we went 1 nil down after trying to clear the box in the box & they scored with a low range shot. We came back with an equalizer after Lucas & Jordy combined well again. Lucas repaying Jordy for the 2 assists yesterday gave him 2 assists on Sunday. Nice ball from Taylor Walter to Lucas & then he beat 3 players on the wide right & crossed a great ball in for Jordy to drill home. Ended up winning 2-1.

U18s
U18 Saturday game: 40 mph wind 2 subs only due to injury & graduations, U16 goalkeeper Evan Wright.First goal scored by Jordan Zarse. 2nd goal was a corner headed in stringly by Michael Oakley from the far post. 3rd goal was a 25 yard strike by Patrick Foglio & the 4th goal was crossed in from the right by Drew Garcia & went right over the keeper & into the top left corner. Won 4-2 a great win for the players & they played really well & deserved it!

Unfortunately the 18s lost 5-1 on Sunday. They worked so hard but with only 1 sub available due to Drew Garcia hurt, & with a u16 goalkeeper it proved too much. The boys struggled with the altitude & heat on Sunday, but had some good scoring opportunities towards the end. There were several changes from the team they had played the day before & beaten 4-2.

We will have the graduating boys back next week Fricke, Max & Eric plus the GK, Taylor Vinnage. Looks like Will can train this week too so all being well he can play some in Sarasota. They are exhausted but worked hard til the end!

Get to know our Juniors...

With the U16s & U18s not playing until April 3rd and the U14s getting "snowed" out last week, we thought we would take this time and get to know a few of our players. Our first video is off Garrett Pulliam on the U16s.

U16's Match Up Evenly

The U16s faced FC Milwaukee last Saturday, March 13th and man it was cold! The first half was dominated by the Wizards and we were able to create quite a few opportunities. Our goal came in the 42nd when we were able to string together 8+ passes; the whole team was almost involved. To name a few the final four passes consisted off Schrick to Knoll to Pulliam and Rideout finished into the back of the next. Head Coach Jon Parry was very pleased with this goal "We have been working on functional training and possession once a week, so it was good to see it pay off." The team held off Milwaukee for most of the second half. They were able to capitalize on a mistake that happen in our defensive third and they scored in the 82nd minute. Parry emphasized to the team that they need to put together a complete game next time.

On Sunday morning they played Sockers FC out of Chicago. The game was one of the best games the U16's played start to finish. They were able to keep possession and around the 20min Rideout received a ball in the air, took it off his chest and 1/2 volleyed it into the back of the net. The goal was a different level! Not even 10mins later they scored off a rebound and tied the score 1-1. The second half was a lot of back and forth where we had opportunities but couldn't finish. Coach Parry was very complimentary to the Sockers and said "It was very enjoyable playing another team that 'gets after it' for 90mins". He believed the score 1-1 was a very fair result.

Big Congrats to the Juniors

The U16's attempting to warm-up, but still in amazement that they are about to play a match...

I still can't believe we played Saturday night and thank god we did because Sunday was worse. Colorado Rush had nonrefundable tickets so they flew here Saturday determined to get the game in. They landed around 3pm and we had kicked off the conference game by 5:15pm with flurries...

The flurries turned into a full fledged snow storm in my eyes, I'm no weather man but seriously it was crazy! The U16 were unstoppable and took advantage of the slick conditions following up on every shot. We had goals from Nate Opperman, Derek Schrick and Garrett Pulliam. The final was 3-0

The U18's played directly after and had a long fight to the end. There was no scoring until the final few minutes of the game. Rush got on the board first with a PK and within minute we came back and tied the game with a goal by Will Witherspoon. Defender Michael Oakley had the game winner just minutes later of a freekick and the score remained 2-1 leaving the KCW Juniors victorious.

The boys really gave it there all and a big thank you to all who coordinated schedules and to the parents for being so flexible. The teams will continue conference play from now until the Spring Showcase in May. Up next is a road trip to St.Louis on March 6th & 7th.