November 20 -- At the end of Saturday’s 25 minute "seeding" games, Coach Mauricio Milian’s U11 Boys had only a "so-so" record that placed them pretty much in the middle of the ten team division. As a fortuitous draw would have it, that was good enough to earn them a bye in Sunday morning’s early games in the second tier, and place them into a semi-final match-up against a team from Chantilly (CYA). In a hard fought contest, BRYC’s boys prevailed...and it was on to the finals where they would likely face the top-seeded team in the bracket. As fortune would again have it, however, the top-seeded boys from Fairfax (FPYC), playing at the same time, were going down to a determined squad from Vienna (VYS) who Milian’s boys had played, and beaten 2-1, during the seeding round. They would meet again for the championship.

After warning his boys not to take Vienna lightly, that beating a team twice in two days wasn’t going to be easy, Milian said he had confidence in their ability to win Championship honors if they played as well as they could. And they did! Congratulations to Rani, two Erics, Brian, Ezana, Giles, Benjamin, Liam, Roman, Daniel, Brendan, Kyle, and Philip, and certainly to coach Milian, for a great tournament weekend...the only BRYC squad to win it’s final game.

Five other BRYC squads were not quite so fortunate, but made it to the Championship game before going down, three of them in heartbreaking penalty kick shootouts , joining five other BRYC squads who also ended their All Star campaigns in PK’s without reaching the finals.  So the BRYC Recreational Soccer season ends with the thought that before next spring’s FPYC Tournament we just might want to spend a little more time practicing penalty kicks! But win, lose, or draw, the consensus is it was a great tournament for all the participants. As Joan Smith, coach of the U14 Girls noted in an email after their heartbreaking loss, "THAT is what youth sports should be all about. I’m sure we all agree that ... we would have liked the win... but in the end it’s a game. There will be another year."

Press "Continue" to see team photos of the other trophy winning squads. 

November 20 -- At the end of Saturday’s 25 minute "seeding" games, Coach Mauricio Milian’s U11 Boys had only a "so-so" record that placed them pretty much in the middle of the ten team division. As a fortuitous draw would have it, that was good enough to earn them a bye in Sunday morning’s early games in the second tier, and place them into a semi-final match-up against a team from Chantilly (CYA). In a hard fought contest, BRYC’s boys prevailed...and it was on to the finals where they would likely face the top-seeded team in the bracket. As fortune would again have it, however, the top-seeded boys from Fairfax (FPYC), playing at the same time, were going down to a determined squad from Vienna (VYS) who Milian’s boys had played, and beaten 2-1, during the seeding round. They would meet again for the championship.

After warning his boys not to take Vienna lightly, that beating a team twice in two days wasn’t going to be easy, Milian said he had confidence in their ability to win Championship honors if they played as well as they could. And they did! Congratulations to Rani, two Erics, Brian, Ezana, Giles, Benjamin, Liam, Roman, Daniel, Brendan, Kyle, and Philip, and certainly to coach Milian, for a great tournament weekend...the only BRYC squad to win it’s final game.

Coach Megan Kipp’s U10 Girls "Azul" may have been BRYC’s only undefeated team on Saturday.  They might also have been the only BRYC squad not to yield a single goal against.  They also didn’t score a single goal, tying all four contests 0-0 and finishing in the middle of the second tier teams. 

In their first game on Sunday against PWSI, (a 7:30 AM contest that had the girls rising before the sun was up) they fell behind to PWSI by a score of 2-0 before finally finding their scoring touch and winning 4-2 on goals from Bridget O. (Zippy) and Emma J. (Sonic).

The semi-final contest three hours later was against a tough squad from Ashburn.  Brianna F. (Bri) and the defense of Aine M. (Cookie), Jordan N. (Ninja) and Molly D. (M-Dawg) played tough.  Breanna S. (Breezy) set up one socre from a great corner kick.  Rachel H. (Monkey), Anna S (Bananas), and Erica O. (Skittles) played smart ball, as Azul earned a 2-1 victory and moved into the finals.

Playing in their third game in six hours, Azul had no more gas in the tank, having chances but falling 2-0 to an equally tired but inspired squad from Vienna. Coach Kipp extended her thanks to helpers Claire and Kelsey from her U15 Girls travel squad, Vista Xplosion, the former of whom played on Kipp’s first BRYC All Star squad as a U10, "way back when " and congratulated her team on a great weekend.  "Great job Azul!"

Coach Fred Welther’s and Mitch Bennett’s U11 Girls were seeded first on the basis of Saturday’s games, earning a bye on Sunday morning.  After winning their first contest on Sunday afternoon, they had a long break before playing under the lights for the championship, eventually falling to the second-seeded team from the Northern Virginia Soccer Club (NVSC) in a penalty kick shootout after playing to a draw during regulation time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly the same fate befell Coach James Sullivan’s and Joan Smith’s U14 Girls.  Seeded first after Saturday’s matches, they earned a bye into the second round and won that contest, then tied a very strong Springfield (SYC) team in regulation before losing the shootout.  The webmaster was fortunate enough to see this very tense contest between coaches (and many of the same girls) who had met just a week earlier in the Middle School Girls House Soccer League tournament, with essentially the same result except in that instance the girls were declared co-champions (see earlier stories, November 1 and November 12 below).  There was enough excitement in this game, including an injury and a goal that was called back, for an entire season.

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Mitch Peyser’s third-seeded U16 Boys earned their Finalist trophies by winning their first two games on Sunday before falling (in regulation time) to the second-seeded boys from Prince William (PWSI).   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last of BRYC’s trophy winning teams, Walt Lamore’s U16 Girls, was seeded into Sunday’s second round against Soccer on the Hill (SOTH) whom they dispatched by a score of 2-0.  Facing a team fron Springfield in the finals, the BRYC squad played to a 0-0 draw during regulation time but became the third BRYC team to go down by way of penalty kicks in the championship contest.