Luis Leon, a striker for the Pateadores U18 Development Academy team, and Seneca Kinn-Gurzo, a midfielder for the FC Bucks U17 ECNL team, are the TopDrawerSoccer.com Academy Players of the Week.

Leon put in three goals for his resurgent Pateadores team, while Kinn-Gurzo supplied all four assists in her team’s 4-0 demolition of World Class FC over the weekend.

One of the most promising turnarounds in the academy this season belongs to the Pateadores U18 team. Despite missing the playoffs in 2014, the side’s been helped this season by reinforcements from a U16 team that finished third in the Southwest Division last year with 17 wins. This year, Pats’ U18 team is occupying an automatic qualifying berth with an 18-6-7 record through the weekend, thanks in part to a huge 5-1 win over fellow playoff team Real So Cal. Nobody had a bigger part to play than Luis Leon, who scored a hat trick to boost his season team-leading total to 16 goals. With 70 goals across the team this season, Pats will be a difficult team to slow in the postseason.

FC Bucks have been competitive at the U17 level in a difficult division all season. At 9-1-5 this season, FC Bucks’ first and only loss of the season came last weekend to the PDA U17 thresher. That game aside, FC Bucks has been one of the northeast’s preeminent teams this season, and midfielder Kinn-Gurzo might have had her breakout in their first match of the weekend. FC Bucks’ 4-0 win over World Class FC on Saturday was its most lopsided of the season, and both Gabrielle Farrell and Meghan Wachira scored braces in the victory. But the common thread was Kinn-Gurzo, who supplied the assists on every one of those goals. After entering the game with just one assist on the season, she’ll likely command more defensive attention as the playoffs draw nearer.

The TopDrawerSoccer.com Academy Player of the Week is designed to reward top performances from the previous week’s action in both the U.S. Soccer Development Academy and the Elite Clubs National League. Winners are chosen on a variety of litmuses, and the public is free to submit nominations for consideration each week. Those can be sent to Will Parchman at wparchman@topdrawersoccer.com.