West-Mont United Strikers

Strikers Upcoming Events

Aug 28-29, 2010                Spirit United Kickoff Classic

Fall 2010                            Philadelphia Area Girls (PAGS) S.L. - U11 Division1

Oct. 9-11, 2010                  WAGS Tournament

Nov. 20-21,2010                Hempfield Fall Classic

Strikers Win CRUSA/FC Bucks Invitational in U-11 Debut

For the new U-11 West-Mont Strikers not only was a debut of a new team for the 2010-11 season, it was also a debut of new uniforms. Gone were the Stripes of West-Mont past, but not gone, was the play that propelled this team last spring to the EPYSA Challenge Cup final. The Strikers ended up Champions of the premier division of this one-day Invitational against a high quality group of teams.

The first game slated the Strikers against a very strong Buckingham Wave team. The Wave applied pressure right from the tap, and despite excellent shots, goalie Leslie Adams was there to save the day early. The Wave however would not be denied and jumped out to an early  1-0 lead. The Strikers responded before half when Kelly Franz fed Mackenzie Mitchell with a “one-touch pass” that she slid by the goalie for a 1-1 tie at half. The second half the Strikers awoke,  and pushed the pace of play with excellent defensive pressure from KK O’Donnell, Bergen Bycoskie, and Katie Byrd. The Midfielders ( Kayla Mesaros , Brooke Ritchie and Allison Cappeli ) continued to make fine crossing passes, and Cappelli placed an excellent “through ball” ahead to Kelly Franz for the go ahead goal. The final goal came on a cross from Mackenzie Mitchell to Elly Bycoskie who ripped a shot off a defender and into the goal for a 3-1 final score.

Game two had the Strikers facing last fall’s undefeated PAGS champions,  the CRUSA Attack. Despite a strong  start by the Strikers, they didn’t put one on the scoreboard early. The Attack however made the most of their first shot, and took an early 1-0 lead. Allison Cappelli then took a pass from Bergen Bycoski and Mackenzie Mitchell, and hit a precise shot by a multitude of players for a 1-1 tie. As the second half wore on the Strikers got stronger, and that  extra stamina led to more chances. The pressure again was due to the excellent defense (by O’Donnell, Christman, Byrd, and Ritchie). The game winner came with 5 minutes remaining on a tremendous punt by goalie Leslie Adams to Kelly Franz who bent an amazing angled shot into the net for the game winner. Excellent scoring attempts and plays were also made all game by Elly Bycoski as well as Kayla Mesaros.

The final game had the West-Mont Strikers playing the Lower Mac. Strikers . West-Mont Strikers started out strong , and never looked back netting 4 goals in the first half for a 4- 0 lead. The first goal was an unassisted ball hammered in by Bergen Bycoski for a 1-0 lead. Katie Byrd got into the scoring column crashing the goal for the second goal of the game. Mackenzie Mitchell then hit a sliding goal into the top 90 for goal number three. Goal four came by way of Striker Kelly Franz who got free after some precise passes by Mackenzie Mitchell and Kayla Mesaros ( Mesaros also had two other assists on goal #2 and #3 of the first half). In the second half Lesie Adams scored  with assists going to Mackenzie Mitchell and Allie Christman. Allison Cappelli finished the scoring with a great hustle play, outrunning a Lower Mac defender after a great lead pass from Kelly Franz. Excellent play and hustle was also displayed all game by Brooke Ritchie, Bergen Bycoski, KK O’Donnell and Elly Bycoski en route to the 6-0 victory.

MVP’s selected by the opposing coaches for the game were : Game 1 -Leslie Adams, Game 2- Bergen Bycoski, and  Game 3- Mackenzie Mitchell.

Great job Strikers way to kick off the U-11 season  as Champions!