Two Riverhounds Development Academy teams came out atop their groups on the girls weekend of the prestigious Jefferson Cup in Richmond, Va., and that was just the highlight of a weekend full of big games — and cold weather — for the academy.
The 2005 and 2007 Girls were the ones to post perfect records in Richmond, and the 05s did it in dominant fashion, recording a +13 goal difference in just three showcase matches. Fiona Mahan led the side with four goals on the weekend, while Lucia Wells and Julia Lozowski netted three apiece, as the Hounds’ closest match was a 4-0 win on the final day over Patriots FC of New York.
The 2007 Girls, meanwhile, had to win a true championship game to take their group, and they got the job done 4-1 against the New England Surf (Mass.). Robin Reilly scored twice in the final, part of a five-goal weekend, while Isabella Costa and Maddie Barr also struck in the final game. As it turned out, the team would have advanced to the final with a draw in its final group game, but a penalty by Reilly kept the perfect record intact with a 3-2 comeback win over World Class FC (N.Y.) in which Sierra Dupre scored twice to start the rally.
The 06 Girls also had a productive weekend with two wins out of three, while the 03/04 and 06 East Girls also picked up wins during the high-level showcase.
Closer to home, the ECNL Boys sides faced some tough league matches but grabbed a few excellent results.
The weekend started with the 2006 Boys scoring a 1-0 upset of the first-place Nationals (Mich.). The defense led by Arnev Patel and good goalkeeping by Nick Cherry kept the match deadlocked until Jackson Suski set up Davi Jansson for the winning goal in the waning moments. The 03/04 Boys and 07 Boys also picked up wins on Saturday, while the 05 Boys played two very different draws — 0-0 with Nationals and 3-3 with Cleveland Force.
The younger ECNL girls were on the road, and the 09 Girls scored a big 2-1 win at Kings Hammer (Ohio) behind goals by Madison Shaver and Charlotte Kline. It was a good weekend for that age group, as the 09 Regional League Girls side took four points out of six by beating Ohio Premier, 3-1, with goals by Addy Richardson, Rylee Leasher and Emerson Shine, and drawing Kings Hammer, 1-1, with another goal by Leasher.
The other two-match-winning side on the weekend were the 03/04 RDA II Boys, who racked up a pair of GLA wins by topping their RDA East counterparts and then shutting out Cleveland Force, 4-0, behind a Jeremy Uher hat trick. Weather took its toll on a number of other GLA matches, causing a handful of cancellations for both the RDA II and RDA East teams.
Beginning with this past weekend’s games, the RDA Results page is back up and running on Riverhounds.com. Now there’s no need to wait for the weekly recap for Academy news, and you can see how all the teams around the organization fared in one place.
