The weekend before Thanksgiving turned into busiest weekend of the fall — at least by total number of games played — for the Riverhounds Development Academy.
ECNL play kicked off in the oldest age groups as high school soccer wrapped up in most states, while boys teams both young and old, City and East hit the road for their weekend at the Bethesda Premier Cup in Bethesda, Md. and the Nation’s Capital Cup in McLean, Va.
League play got off to a good start for the RDA Boys, who traveled to Ohio for a road ECNL weekend and brought home at least three points in all of the age groups starting play. The 2007 Boys led the way with a 3-0 win over Ohio Premier — getting two goals by Jacek Piekut and a penalty by Danny Moya-Gibbons — and a 0-0 draw with Pacesetter SC for a four-point haul.
The other Sunday matches at Pacesetter all went the Hounds way, as Zach Nash scored for the 06 Boys in a 1-0 win, James Ivanov and Nick Allan scored for the 05 Boys in a 2-0 win, and the 03/04 Boys put up the biggest number of all, 5-0, with five different scorers.
Not to be outdone, the RDA Girls sides also scored some ECNL results. With tough home games and heavy legs coming off high school season, some teams struggled, but the 07 Girls nicked a 2-1 win over Internationals SC behind goals from Mia Deramo and Simone Sharpless, and the 03/04 girls got a hard-fought 2-2 draw with Cleveland Force with Mary Kate Lape scoring both goals on assists from Azalea Mihailovich.
The 03/04 Regional League Girls had the best weekend of all, going on the road to win over Cleveland Force and Internationals, both 2-0. Halle Marsalis’ brace put away the force, and Sara Powell and Rachel Mamula secured the six-point weekend on Sunday. The 07 RL Girls also had two good battles on the road, earning a 3-3 draw with the Force and a 1-1 draw with Internationals, as Riley White stood out all weekend along the back line.
Off at the weekend’s tournaments, the 10 East Boys added to the trophy case with a 2-0 win over Arundel SC (Md.) in the championship game at the Nation’s Capital Cup. Nolan Ptackiewics and Max Miller scored in the final, while Miller and Austyn Gross were the semifinal scorers in a 2-1 win over Premier AC (Va.).
The 04 East Boys, 09 East Boys and 11 Boys all reached the semifinals in their respective divisions, but each fell at the stage, including the 04 East Boys going out on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw with Victory SC.
The resumption of ECNL play meant a smaller boys contingent made the trip to Bethesda, but the 09 Boys certainly acquitted themselves well by reaching the championship game with a 2-0-1 record before falling 3-0 against Loudoun SC (Va.). The 05 RDA II Boys also had a productive weekend, going 1-1-1 to finish second in their group, a showcase division with no knockout rounds.
With so many matches, there are plenty more results to be seen on the RDA Results page, which will get this coming weekend off along with our teams for the holiday weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Riverhounds Development Academy!
