COMMERCE CITY \u2013 First they wore them out.<\/p>\n
Then, they finished them off.<\/p>\n
And now the Space Coast United U19 boys are just two wins away from accomplishing something they\u2019ve literally been working towards for a year.<\/p>\n
Trailing California\u2019s Cesar Chavez Futbol Academy 1-0 at the half, SCU got a game-tying goal from Jadyn Senger and the game-winner from Mikkel Jensen with time running down in regulation to score a 2-1 victory in the final game of pool play at the U.S. Soccer Club National Cup.<\/p>\n
The victory puts Space Coast United into the semifinals for the second straight year. SCU scheduled to face Oklahoma\u2019s West Side Alliance SC Sunday morning at 10:30 at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.<\/p>\n
Anyone who has been following Space Coast United knows it was leading 2-1 in last year\u2019s national semifinals when a controversial call \u2013 a foul called on SCU\u2019s goalkeeper, who collided with an opponent while making a save \u2013 resulted in a penalty kick that tied the game. SCU would end up losing in overtime and vowed to come back to Colorado and make amends.<\/p>\n
Now, Space Coast United has that chance.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t easy, of course, but that just makes it sweeter.<\/p>\n
This one was absolutely a team effort. It was also an example of heart, determination and fitness. Lots and lots of fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means, everything,\u201d Viera High grad Matthew Da Silva said. \u201cLast year, hearts were broken. We want this so bad. That\u2019s why at practice we always run 120\u2019s every single time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just pushing ourselves to the limit and making sure when we came back here, we were coming back to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cesar Chavez team came into Saturday\u2019s matchup having scored nine goals in its previous two games and looking like a formidable opponent in a matchup where the winner was guaranteed a spot in the semifinals and the loser would have to hope the tiebreakers went their way.<\/p>\n
And when Cesar Chavez scored an early goal, it looked like Space Coast United might be in trouble because the California team appeared to be packing the box defensively to take away any scoring opportunities. SCU did create a few chances, but couldn\u2019t convert and went to the half trailing 1-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really stressed after they scored the first goal, because I thought throughout the whole game, we were the better team,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cAt halftime, everyone was scared, and I just said we\u2019ve just got to calm down. We\u2019ve been playing well. We just need to put the ball in the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, their team tired out and we got the last two goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as the players may not have enjoyed it, all the extra work they put in before coming to Colorado has really paid off. That was evident in the last 20 minutes of the game, where Cesar Chavez players were leaning over and clearly exhausted, while Space Coast United just kept coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ran at the end of every practice,\u201d SCU coach Taylor Pitts said about his team\u2019s preparation. \u201cThe boys wanted to die. It\u2019s warm here, but it\u2019s not warm like at home because of the humidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second half of the game, we just took over. They weren\u2019t fit. They were cramping and dropping off. Our kids just kept going and going. I\u2019ve got 18 kids who can play, and we used all 18 of them today.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke (Collins) usually gets a lot of minutes. He played 10 in the second half and sold out. He did what he had to do. Jake Medina put his body on the line all day long and Luke went in and finished the game. Goody (Matthew Gooden) played a ton of minutes today. Dane (Boss) played a ton of minutes. Jake Wells, the first half, not the best we\u2019ve seen him play. The second half, he just kept going.<\/p>\n
\u201cMikkel was getting frustrated and we just kept telling him, \u2018Mikkel, keep running. You\u2019re going to get rewarded.\u2019 He kept running, and it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, it did.<\/p>\n
The game-tying goal came from Senger, whose long-distance shot beat the keeper to the near post. Senger has now scored three goals in three tournament games.<\/p>\n
Then, it was Jensen, who scored with less than four minutes left in regulation on an assist from Wells.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually a little bit tired,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cThe ball came over, Jake was running down the line. I was thinking, \u2018Should I go? Or not? I\u2019m a little bit tired.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cJake likes to shoot a lot because he\u2019s a good player. I (went) in case the goalkeeper bobbled it out, but (Jake) ended up cutting it back and I just finished it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen\u2019s goal set off a big celebration for SCU, which could now clearly see it\u2019s path to the semifinals with the score 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I could do is just run and hug him,\u201d Da Silva said. \u201cIt was a beautiful goal. Jake had the assist and he just slots it into the post.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even describe how it feels. It was just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cesar Chavez was trailing now, but to its credit, the players still had some fight in them. They created one more quality scoring chance in extra time that required a big-time save by SCU goalkeeper Lucas Evans.<\/p>\n
Jensen, Da Silva and Pitts all praised Evans for coming up with a big save to preserve the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us saw it coming,\u201d Da Silva said. \u201cHe (Evans) just came out (and made a) perfect save to really save us from a tie right there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it was just excellent goalkeeping. I don\u2019t expect anything less from him. He\u2019s that kind of guy. He\u2019ll make that kind of save.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the kind of effort it took to get the win on Saturday, and that\u2019s what it will take to get this thing across the finish line.<\/p>\n
As Pitts told the players after the game, their moment isn\u2019t going to happen every game. They\u2019re moment is going to happen when it matters most for the team.<\/p>\n
And there were plenty of those moments on Saturday. Like Skyler Serpa-Tapia, who didn\u2019t have his best first half, but finished the game with some of his best play of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say enough about some of these kids.\u201d Pitts said. \u201cCarlos (Nieves) put in a class effort today. He went 90 minutes, the whole game, holding us together. Jake Medina. Lucas (Evans) had a huge save there in extra time.<\/p>\n
\u201c.. Yeah, we single out a couple of kids, but really, it\u2019s all 18 of them. I put the goalkeeper (Eddie Steinwand) to play striker for 10 minutes today. He wore them down, did what he was supposed to do \u2026 chase, chase, chase and won some tackles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other players with big contributions on Saturday included Owen Kaufman; Caleb Adams; Wade Bishop; Samuel Cottrell; Aiden Holtcamp; Rod Rincones and Sean Rogers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single person did their job,\u201d Da Silva said. \u201cThat was what made us able to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that they have their second shot at winning the National Cup, expect an even bigger effort from Space Coast United players come Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s just more hunger after this game to get to the finals and win,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMMERCE CITY \u2013 First they wore them out. Then, they finished them off. And now the Space Coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,9538],"class_list":["post-9341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-viera-sports-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}