97 TSC Elite had a great weekend at the Nike Florida Classic January 30 – 31, 2010 in Pensacola, Florida.  The parents started the weekend off by driving through torrential rains on Friday night on their way to the tournament.  But the trip was worth it with some great soccer.  Surprisingly the fields drained very well and after a two hour delay the games began on Saturday morning. 

The first game was against Weston Fury from Florida.  They are currently ranked #2 in Gotsoccer.com, and #4 in Soccerincollege.com in the state of Florida.  It was a very physical, hard fought game.  But Weston got the best of Thunder 2-1.   With four teams in the bracket Thunder hoped they could win the next two to get a rematch against Weston Fury in the finals.

The second game was against Mobile United from Alabama.  Thunder dominated and cruised to a 6-0 victory, thus ending Saturday with some momentum.  That evening they enjoyed Pensacola’s finest seafood at Peg Leg Pete’s on Pensacola Beach.  They knew that they had to beat the host team to get the rematch with Weston Fury in the finals.

Sunday, Thunder played the host team, Dallas Texans Florida.  The winner would go to the finals.  Thunder came out strong and went to the half with a comfortable 4-1 lead.  Thunder went a man down in the second half, but held on to win 6-2 in a well played game setting up the rematch against Weston Fury.

After a short break Thunder went to the finals for the eagerly awaited rematch against the Weston Fury.  Thunder started the game strong dominating the first part of the first half, but couldn’t get past the strong defense of the Fury.  After two halves and many near misses from both teams, two tired teams went to overtime with the score tied 0-0. Unfortunately within two minutes into the start of overtime Weston took the lead with a sliding toe-poke on the back post from a cross from the right side of the field.  Thunder couldn’t answer and the Weston Fury celebrated a hard fought win at the sound of the last whistle.

It was a great tournament, and the 97 TSC Elite boys fought hard.  Coach Cedric was very happy with the quality of soccer, and effort shown by the boys over the weekend. At the trophy ceremony the Weston Fury coaching staff, team manager, and parents praised Thunder as being one of the best teams they had ever played.  Overall it was a great start to the Spring season for the 97 TSC Elite boys.

In Picture:

Back Row- Coach Marty Kangiser and Coach Cedric Marshall

Second Row- Adam Kangiser, Keelen McIver, Christian Duncan, Orlando Hernandez, Fabian Garcia, Guillermo Mungia, Alec Jones

First Row- Chandler McCoy, Daniel Rodriguez, Jonah Griswold, Michael Santaloci, Simon Willis, and Ryan Kangiser