REDMOND, Washington — The Michigan Hawks U18 side had plenty of motivation burning in its furnace headed into the ECNL Playoffs here this week. Much of it stemmed from last season.

While the Hawks’ U14 side was busy winning a national title in Seattle in 2014, the Hawks U17 side was handed a difficult draw and couldn’t advance out of its group to make the next month’s final grouping. For a team this talented, it was a bitter pill and a tough way to end the season.

But there was another season left in the core of that U17 team. And as U18s, they made good on their desire to go out on the highest note possible.

The Hawks put in a masterclass defensive display, and a pair of headed goals on either side of the half sent them off to a 2-0 victory over West Coast FC on the last of six straight days of soccer at Sixty Acres Park. For the U14s and U18s, Tuesday represented the end of the road for the 2014-15 season. While the winners of U15, U16 and U17 groups here will move on to the ECNL Finals in Richmond, Virginia later this month, Tuesday was do-day for four sides caught in finals.

On the U14 side, Slammers FC joined the Hawks as winners with a fully deserved 2-0 win over a San Diego Surf team many had pegged as favorites entering the tournament. Slammers FC, however, controlled the central midfield for much of the afternoon and put the match away with about 15 minutes to go.

As for the Hawks, their performance was vindication for a week spent playing at a breakneck pace. The Hawks were a rolling pin in the group stage with seven points from nine matches, and a 2-1 win in the semis over a Crossfire team that had knocked out the No. 1 Dallas Sting was impressive. But this was the crowning achievement. West Coast FC actively attempted to play out of the back and through the talented Christina Settles, but it was no use. The Hawks were swarming.

They opened the scoring about 15 minutes into the match on a headed goal from Maya Piper, and they got the clincher about 10 minutes into the second half on second header from Piper, this time off a corner. Brenna Lovera up top and Piper off her back as a second striker in attack, caused so many problems that the WCFC back line couldn’t deal with aerially. Two moments of magic ultimately proved that in spades.

As for the U14s, the match settled into a tempo early it kept throughout. As Slammers FC sought to nail down the central midfield via the inimitable Jenna Nighswonger, Surf looked to exploit its speed in space out on the flanks, mostly through the rabid legs of Brooke Wilson, one of the tournament’s best players. The two teams jabbed unsuccessfully for most of the first half until Slammers found the breakthrough just before half.

With only five minutes left before the break, where Surf could recharge its tiring fastbreak attack, Slammers found a goal off the head of Samantha Randolph from Amaya Gonzalez’s well-placed corner kick at the back post. That stood well into the second half, and despite Surf’s attempts to find cracks, none opened. Slammers put the game to bed when Destinee Manzo let go a piledriver from 20 yards that settled into the far upper corner. That wasn’t just the goal of the tournament aesthetically. It also clinched a well-deserved title for a team that won every match it played in Seattle.

Dallas Sting 3-1 Real So Cal U17
It was only a matter of time before Sting would start scoring goals, and at that point, this match would be over. It took Dallas half an hour to get its first on the way to a comfortable win made slightly less sure by an equalizer right before halftime.

Sting kept the vast majority of possession, So Cal getting forward on the counterattack whenever possible, and threatened to score from the first whistle. Ball circulation was a little too slow in the middle, allowing the So Cal defense to stay composed and weather the early storm, helped by weak shots when Dallas did get into the attacking third.

Finally, in the 30th minute, Dallas made one of its long strings of completed passes through the middle count. After some side-to-side ball movement, Cyera Hintzen cut across goal without really controlling a pass from a teammate—but she didn’t need full control to unleash a volley back across her body and inside the right post.

Two minutes before the break, So Cal earned a corner kick on one of its rare breaks up the  field, which led to a scramble in the penalty area. Quinn Frankel tapped in from inside the six-yard box to put her team on equal footing.

The second half again was all Sting, and the Dallas team scored the winning goal in the 53rd minute off a wide free kick. After it was swung in essentially like a corner, Julia Lenhardt got the final touch on another goal-area scramble.

Hintzen sealed it just two minutes later off an incisive assisting effort from Stefani Doyle. Doyle drove down the left flank, beat a couple defenders and played a short pass into the box for Hintzen. She slipped the ball across goal and inside the far post to kill So Cal’s hopes of another comeback.

Match Fit Academy 5-2 Colorado Rush U16
Sometimes at the youth level, it just takes one special player to turn a game on its head. Match Fit forward Olivia Vaughn was that player for her team on Tuesday, scoring a hat trick on the way to a deceptively large margin of victory.

Colorado actually had more control of the match in terms of possession, but it had no teeth in the final third. Match Fit goalkeeper Kacey Lambertson remained relatively untroubled, save for coming off her line to intercept wayward passes through her back line.

Vaughn scored twice in the first 12 minutes, and Madison Lowe added a third before halftime on a questionable penalty call for holding as the teams set up for a corner kick. Two minutes after the restart, Vaughn scored her third on a shot from the right side of the penalty area.
After a lengthy injury stoppage as Lambertson collided with Rush forward Civana Kuhlmann on a floated ball into her area—Kuhlmann needed extensive attention for a head injury and was taken off the field on a golf cart—Match Fit scored again.

Leah Scarpelli, playing three years ahead of her U13 eligibility, put away a corner in the 59th minute to make it 5-0. The young left winger looked the part, taking on opponents without regard to their supposed superiority and getting shots off from around the penalty area.

Rush pulled two goals back in the last 15 minutes, taking advantage of the gaps in Match Fit’s back line. Madison Johnson got the final touch on a lofted cross into the area before another collision with Lambertson, and Theresa Boade fought through traffic in front of goal to add a second in stoppage time.