FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
-A Washington Soccer Extravaganza-
There is nothing more exciting than when two rivals at the top of their games meet on a Friday night under the big lights in a game that matters. This coming Friday, December 14, that is exactly what will happen as the US Soccer Development Academy teams from Crossfire Premier and Washington Premier meet for the rematch of their two game series. These two clubs, who continually battle for Northwest supremacy, promise to leave nothing on the field as pride, bragging rights and first place will be on the line.
In the 8:00 PM match the two U18 squads, who have been facing each other since the participants were ten years old, will face off. This is the last time many of these players will ever compete against each other as their youth careers are coming to an end. In other words it is “put up or shut up” because for the seniors there will be no rematch. Their October game in Tacoma, which set the stage for the Friday affair, was an extremely hard fought battle that was won by Crossfire 1-0 behind a spectacular effort from Estaban Reyes. Reyes, who suffered a high ankle sprain, is doubtful for the match but Crossfire spirits run high as they return from the Nike Friendlies with a 2-0-1 record having beaten St. Louis powerhouse, Scott Gallagher (2-1), New York’s finest, Metro Oval (2-0) and tied the always dangerous, Ohio Elite (2-2).
“It was great to see the boys go down to Florida and compete against the best in the nation last weekend,” said Crossfire Coaching Director Bernie James. “We have gone through a series of tough results where we have had trouble scoring goals and our defense has given up a few that were a little soft. I think we got that fixed down in Florida. I expect the boys to come to the game Friday with a lot of confidence.”
In the opening 6:00 PM match Washington Premier’s U16s will be trying to avenge a 2-1 loss from last October to Crossfire. In that encounter the PierceCounty boys squandered a 1-0 second half lead in a heart breaker. They will be doing all they cannot to leave with that empty feeling again but to do so they will have to come up with an answer for the powerful Crossfire attack lead by Kelyn Rowe, Cody Snyder and Charlie Piehler. Rowe’s and Piehler’s presence in the Crossfire line up hits a particular sensitive nerve in the Washington Premier side because both of those stars reside in Pierce County. Washington Premier will be doing all they can to make a statement to these “defectors.” Even if they are able to hold the powerful Crossfire attack in check they still have another “253er” to deal with in Crossfire’s star midfielder, Ben Fisk, as well as the rock solid Crossfire defense lead by the athletic, Jack Ryan.
If that was not enough they will have the additional challenge of goalkeeper Spencer Richey, who will be playing his last home game before departing for the US Soccer Residency Program in Bradenton, FL. Richey’s father, Bill, shared with us the family’s excitement for this move earlier in the week. “We are all thrilled at the news Spencer got tonight via a phone call from Paul Grafer with US Soccer’s U17 men's team. He has been asked to join the Residency program beginning January 7th. I again tonight asked Spencer if he realized how far he had come in the past 6 months since joining Crossfire. We agreed it has been an amazing time with an exceptional club- Crossfire. To play with such terrific players, and have great coaching combined with playing the best competition in the country has culminated with this invitation. Spencer wants to try to meet this newest challenge, and barring some significant obstacle, he will report in January. Spencer, Colleen and I want to thank team manager, Lance McIntosh, and head coach, Bernie James, both for their commitment to Crossfire, and to these boys who strive to be the best at their sport.”
Richey’s departure marks the fifth Crossfire player to be a part of this prestigious program making Crossfire the only club in the Northwest that has sent more than one player into residency. It will also be the sixth year in a row where Crossfire has been represented down in Bradenton, the longest streak for any club in the United States.
The U16s also just returned from Florida where they were able to display their skills in front of coaches from some of the most established universities in the country. The sidelines were packed by colleges scouting the Crossfire teams for talent from schools such as Stanford, Harvard, Duke, Princeton, University of Michigan, Wake Forest, Santa Clara, University of Washington, Cornell, Colgate, Buffalo, Naval Academy Georgetown, Lafayette, Dayton, St. Francis (Pennsylvania), Cal Poly, Delaware, Elon, Marquette, Denver, Campbell (N.C.), St. Louis, UAB, U. of Richmond, U. of San Diego, University of Wisconsin, Louisville, Vermont, Coastal Carolina, Northern Illinois, VMI, Brown, SMU, Loyola Marymount, Northwestern, Boston, Portland, Redlands, Loyola (Md), Campbell, Furman and USF. The U16s hope to follow the success of the U18s where seniors have already committed to University of Washington (3), Gonzaga (2), Santa Clara (2), St. Mary’s (2) University of Michigan (1), WakeForest (1), UCLA (1) and Princeton (1). Further commitments are still in the pipeline and are expected to be announced shortly.
“The U18s have been one of the most recruited teams in the country and from the comments I have heard from the college coaches in Florida I expect the U16s to meet or exceed the older boy’s achievements,” said James. “Because of the success of the past four years of seniors at the college level coaches from across the country have sought out players from our club. We know we are pretty tough on our players in terms of rules and expectations but the word from the university coaches is that when they get a Crossfire player on campus they know they are getting a player who is fully prepared for the challenges a student athlete faces. This year with the academy we have worked on taking our players one level further with four practices a week, a larger coaching staff including goalkeeper trainers just for the academy, study halls with tutoring before every practice and our Wednesday college counseling. Our players our expected to be able to perform on and off the field”
The on field performance will be on display this Friday in an atmosphere that promises to be electric. Crossfire has not spared any bells or whistles in setting up the affair. The matches will be played under the lights of the beautiful Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila, WA. Handouts and door prizes will be in place for the fans attending. “We are expecting a big crowd as all Crossfire youth teams are expected to support their club,” said James. “I can also well imagine there will be a strong contingent coming up from Tacoma. The sidelines were packed at our matches this past October at Washington Premier and I would expect them to be headed up I-5 to see the rematches. These teams don’t need much to get them fired up to play each other. Normally you can throw out the records but on Friday with both clubs fighting for first place you can be sure that this will be Northwest soccer at its finest.”