Battle of the Masters

Comments Off 13 October 2011

The BU18 Premier Elite showed up on October 30th at Coronado High School ready to play the Nado Select Coaching Staff and Alumni in the annual Battle of the Masters.

The 18s represent the young masters of the club, reaching the highest level of play for their age group and area and playing in one of the toughest divisions of soccer that exists in the United States. The young masters proved that they could prevail against the very coaches that taught them, winning the game 3-2. This result was a delight for the 18s. Last year the 18s had tied the coaches, but ended up losing in PKs to the Coaches/Alumni.

Coach Manny Neves opened up the scoring with a penalty kick after Coach Kiko Medina was taken down in the box. The boys managed to tie-up the game, scoring within 3 minutes of the PK. Goal was scored by Kyle Koshland after a scramble in the box.

The drama continued in the second half, after Coach Nelson took down a player in the goalbox. The boys went up 2-1 after scoring a PK. Goal was scored by Aaron Martinez, who normally plays goalkeeper. The boys again lost the lead after another penalty kick was awarded after a foul occured in the penalty box. This time Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu put the ball in the back of the net, after the 18s goalie demanded that his coach take the PK. The boys managed to score shortly after the PK off of a spectacular header from Ryan Keeney, who managed to put the ball away from a very well-taken free kick from Riley Peterson. The coaches didn’t manage to answer back and the game ended 3-2. Coach Hiatt-Aleu commented on the game, “Well, I think I’m going to have to say age is becoming a factor in this games each year, I mean we just keep getting older so that definitely is not helping us!”

We thank all the fans who came out to watch the game as well as the referees, who definitely managed to keep the game very exciting!

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