REDMOND, Wash. — The top girls’ teams in the country flew out to the Northwest for a week as the Elite Clubs National League playoffs kicked off on Thursday. The under-14s and under-18s began group play at Sixty Acres Park ahead of a weeklong event just outside Seattle.
TopDrawerSoccer was on hand for a couple games, one in each division. Here’s what happened in those matches in addition to a grouping of the day's top stars.
San Diego Surf U14 5-0 Crossfire Premier
Two goals in the first half and three more in the second lifted Surf to a dominant 5-0 win over tournament host club Crossfire. Brooke Wilson and the United States U15 national team’s Madison Mercado led the way with two assists and two goals and an assist, respectively.
Surf controlled the game from the first whistle, looking to gain the endline and cut back crosses into the middle. However, Crossfire recorded the first shot on target after eight minutes, as left winger Sakura Yoshida picked off a ball from Surf’s back line and put a cross into the penalty area.
It took a while for Surf’s superior build-up and wing play to pay dividends, but it scored twice before halftime once it found a way to capitalize. Three of San Diego’s goals came off endline cutbacks, including the opening goals in the 20th and 36th minutes.
First, Wilson cut inside to send a ball to the back post, where Amber McCorkle tapped in for the opening strike. Then, Mia Fishel finished off a similar move down the left from Mercado as Crossfire continued to struggle with negating the dangerous crosses from deep in its half.
It only took two minutes after the restart for Surf to add a third, this time going straight through the middle. Mercado broke through the back line with a late run from midfield and finished a simple through ball for her first goal of the game.
Another late run gave Mercado her second goal, as Wilson crossed from the endline on the right side again. The initial ball evaded all attackers but eventually fell to Mercado for another simple finish.
Finally, Leyla McFarland picked off a ball in the middle and kept it, dribbling straight through the Crossfire defense before finishing from just inside the penalty area. The morning game tapered off toward the end as the heat intensified, but not before the result was well secured.
GSA U18 1-2 West Coast FC
GSA jumped out to an early lead, with Ella Stevens scoring in the third minute, and controlled possession through the middle early on. West Coast goalkeeper Morgan Baumgartner needed quick reactions for an overhead save off a corner kick just three minutes later, and Georgia’s 2015 High School Player of the Year, Stevens, hit a long shot just past the post in the 10th minute.
Still alive after those early missed chances from its opponent, West Coast started to get forward more regularly as the half progressed.
GSA goalkeeper Morgan Beans made a save similar to Baumgartner’s in the 17th minute after Aubrielle Camacho pulled down a long ball in the box and fired a quick shot on goal. The equalizer came on the ensuing corner, as two West Coast attackers kept the initial service alive with flicks in the penalty area, and Hailey Hite got the final touch.
It was Hite’s first touch of the game, the USC recruit coming off the bench just before the corner was taken.
Hite scored again in the 26th minute, as Camacho swung in a dangerous free kick from high up the field on the left flank. Again, after a couple bounces off the ground and players, Hite got the final touch from inside the six-yard box.
West Coast thought it had a third, turned in after another scramble in front of goal, but the referee called it back for a handball.
After needing a couple chaotic set pieces against the run of play to take the lead, West Coast looked far more comfortable in the second half. GSA’s possession game broke down, as West Coast crowded the middle with its 4-4-2 system with a diamond in midfield.
The Californians dictated much of the rest of the game, its forwards set wide and pressuring GSA every time it tried to play out of the back. However, with 10 minutes left, GSA probed more ferociously for an equalizer, and West Coast settled into a defensive posture to finish the game.
Recent U-20 women’s national team call-up Jennifer Westendorf, quiet for much of the game, rattled the crossbar with a free kick from about 25 yards in the 86th minute. In the second minute of stoppage time, GSA had its second penalty shout of the match denied, and the final whistle went soon after.
Here are a couple players that stood out in the matches TopDrawerSoccer saw on the first day of the weeklong event:
