Last weekend, the Soccer Coliseum at the Teaneck Armory held its U13 tournament in which 12 teams from various parts of New Jersey and New York participated. Among these 12 teams, there were three teams representing Teaneck: the FC Teaneck U13 Thunder and the U12 and U13 Stingrays teams.
The teams were divided into three groups of four teams, with the top team in each group and the best overall second team advancing to the semi-finals. The two Teaneck Stingrays teams ended in first place in their groups, winning all three games. The U13 team ended their group with 15 goals in favor and 8 against. The U12 team, which was playing up against teams a year older, ended with 19 goals in favor and 10 against. While Teaneck Thunder lost three games, they had a very good start to the winter season, scoring 10 goals in three games.
Uri Gulich opened the scoring for the U12 Stingrays after stealing a ball from FC Maximus, and Kyle Linhares once more controlled the offensive line of the Stingrays together with Noam Greenstein and Tate Poston. After a successful group performance, the two Stingrays teams made it into the semi-finals, where they won their respective games against East Ham and Chelsea. As a result, the two Stingrays teams met in a confusing Final game, with parents from both teams cheering for both teams when screaming “Go Stingrays!” from the stands. Since both teams are trained by Ian Glover, he had to leave the field and let the parent-coaches take command of the coaching in this final game.
As would be expected, both teams played a very similar style of soccer, with many short passes and an aggressive defensive style that made the game very entertaining. After a long 18 minutes of play, the U13s opened the score with a great goal, despite the valiant efforts of U12 goalie Jayden Hibbert who was extraordinary despite being only 10 years old and playing against 13- year-olds. The game soon became very exciting when, with only five minutes left on the clock, the U12 team tied the score 1-1, but the U13 team managed to score two minutes later, gaining the lead. With only three minutes on the clock, the U12s followed with a quick succession of three goals in the span of only two minutes. Just as the game was about to finish, the U13s scored with only 10 seconds on the clock.
It was a great day for the two Stingrays teams who celebrated and took photos together after the end of the tournament. In the photo, the U12 team has the medals with the red ribbon and the U13s the medals with the blue ribbons, as they celebrate their 1-2 positions.
By Adrian Gulich
