Teammates:
Aidan DaSilva #15 (Westport, MA.), Chukwuma Onyejose #17 (East Greenwich, RI.), Nico Ferrara #10 (Somerset, MA.), Cameron Pattison #13 (Cohasset, MA.), Skylah Dias #11 (Captain – Swansea, MA.), Jacob Castro #1 (Goalie – Swansea, MA.), Andrew Stevens #4 (Captain – Marshfield, MA.), Troy Mattos #41 (Somerset, MA.), Mikey Carey #19 (Plymton, MA.), Chukwudi Onyejose #6 (East Greenwich, RI.),Kendall Pacheco #16 (New Bedford, MA.), Leon Djusberg #3 (Abington, MA.), Henry Kimber White #7 (Norton, MA.), Zach Miller #2 (Norton, MA.), Brandin Osborne #8 (N. Easton, MA.), John Aguiar #5 (Somerset, MA.) and Max Horowitz #14 (Swansea, MA.), Andy Stark (Weymouth, MA.) Preston Kelleher (Somerset, MA.), Spencer Kelleher (Somerset, MA.)and GPS Crusaders Coach Matt Hardiman,
Local boys will represent Massachusetts in Region 1 Tournament
A number of players from this area will represent the state of Massachusetts in the Region 1 Soccer Championships to be held this weekend at the campus of the University of Rhode Island (URI) when their GPS Crusaders Massachusetts Elite U14 team takes the field to play in bracket C.
This Crusaders team is one of the sides from Global Premier Soccer – Massachusetts (GPS-MA) participating in the tournament, which is open to 15 state champions from the region and will fight to earn a spot in the 2014 US Youth Soccer National Championships to be held from July 22-27 at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown, Maryland.
As with all premier teams, players on the GPS Crusaders come from various cities and towns, but what impresses most about this unit is the fact that 10 of the boys come from four local towns, as five are from Somerset (Nico Ferrara, Troy Mattos, Preston Kelleher, Spencer Kelleher and John Aguiar), three come from Swansea (captain Skylah Dias, Jacob Castro and Max Horowitz), and then there is one player from Westport (Aidan DaSilva) and another from New Bedford (Kendall Pacheco).
The GPS Crusaders earned their trip to URI by winning the Massachusetts State title earlier this month, the culmination of what has been both a thrilling and lengthy season, one that began with a number of question marks.
“When we started the season we had a core group of eight, nine players, we added 10 new players,” explained Coach Matt Hardiman. “So the season was just a progression, the boys getting to know each other, getting to know what it’s all about, what we expect. One of the ways we always wanted to play is play out of the back, the ball on the floor, the way it should be played, pass and move. Then as they started seeing a bit of success doing that, they started believing a little bit more. We played well”.
It is not easy blending in such a large number of new players and getting them to adjust to the demands of a far more competitive season. Predictably, the campaign did not get off to a great start but, as it turned out, opening the campaign with a loss might have been the wake-up call that turned things around.
“We lost our first NEP (New England Premiership League) game and
I think that kind of re-started us a little bit,” Hardiman said. “We lost the game against a team that finished near the bottom of our league and that kind of kicked us on. From there we went on a good run, we added the Northeast Regional league, at that level we were very strong. And as we started putting more consistent results together and winning games, it just became more of a natural habit for the boys. We still lost games and we still had games where we weren’t great, but we brought a lot of the good stuff that we wanted to do in the bigger, important games at the end of the Spring season.”
The players, both the newcomers and those who remained from last season, have obviously bought into Hardiman’s system and are beaming with confidence heading into URI.
“Our team is really good,” said stopper Aidan Da Silva, one of the new players. “It was a big step coming from our town team because we have a lot more practices, a lot more games. In my case, I grew as a player because I learned how to play a new position, stopper, and also because our opponents are really skillful, really good players. It’s very competitive”.
“It’s great (being on this team) because coaches have different points of view, they switch coaches every year so you get different points of view from each coach and different perspectives of what they think of the game, so you learn a lot more in terms of experience and skill,” added midfielder Skylah Dias, the team captain.
Tomorrow’s opening match, scheduled for 4:20 PM, at Field #19, will be against the Mountaineer United Soccer Club Revolution Elite from West Virginia.
On Saturday, at noon, they face the Classics Elite from New Hampshire and close group play on Sunday, at 3 pm, when they square off against Sea Coast United from Maine.
The winner of the group will meet the winner of Group B on Monday, at 11:30 and the title game will be played Tuesday, at 10:00 am.
“We are playing two teams, a team from New Hampshire and a team from Maine that we have prior knowledge of,” Hardiman pointed out. “Again, we are set to play as we can, we believe in what we do, which is the way we play, so we’ll start out the same way, we’ll be disciplined defensively and take care of the ball. If we take care of the ball and we’re careful with it, then I think we’re good enough to beat the teams down there and hopefully move forward as we go”.
“We’re not nervous,” added goal keeper Jacob Castro. “We played in a couple of national tournaments, so if we continue playing the way we’ve been playing, I think we’ll be OK. If we continue the same way and don’t slack off I think we can make it out of the group stage.”
“We know what to expect,” said Skylah Dias. “It’s going to be great individual skill but also great teams that have been together for a very long time and we know they have good chemistry”.
The trip to the “regionals” is the perfect cap to what has been a superb season. The success started on May 10, when the GPS Crusaders won the Northeast Region 1 Championship at Deerfield Park in Greenville, Rhode Island.
The boys had clinched a spot in the final by winning six of the seven regular season games, but things looked very bleak in the title game, as they fell behind, 1-0, and were a mere three seconds away from the final whistle when John Aguiar managed the equalizer that forced the game into over-time. In the extra session, the GPS Crusaders scored two more goals to clinch the trophy with the 3-1 victory.
That win improved the team’s rankings at all levels, as they climbed to number 50 in the nation, number 30 in the region and number 3 in the state.
In addition to the Region 1 League, the GPS Crusaders boys also registered in the very competitive New England Premiership (NEP), “a new Club-based league for clubs throughout New England focused on player development”
The 3-2-2 record was not overly impressive, but the level of competition prepared the boys well for the State Cup, which was held during the last weekend of May and was decided on a couple of nail-biters.
On Saturday, in the semi-final, the GPS Crusaders fell behind early to CSU from Plymouth, on a penalty shot, but did not give in.
“We played well, stuck to our game plan, which was to be a little defensively solid and then play from there,” Harriman said. “We took our chances and I think
that’s what the game is about, when you play in a higher end environment, when you get opportunities, you take them and you need to make less mistakes.”
And opportunistic they were as Chukwuma Onyejose, a striker from East Greenwich, RI, scored twice in the closing minutes to clinch a spot in the title game.
As it turned out, the championship game was against old nemesis
Scorpions SC Boston, the team that had sent the Crusaders packing the year before. Ranked number 1 in Massachusetts, 22nd in Region 1, and 29th in the nation, the Scorpions were the favorites, but the GPS Crusaders did not read the headlines.
The Scorpions opened the scoring in the second half, but Max Horowitz forced the over-time when he finished off a superb free kick taken by co-captain Andrew Stevens, from Marshfield.
Once again, Chukwudi Onyejose became the hero when he scored late in the game to clinch the state title and send the GPS Crusaders to the Region 1 tournament as the top seeded club in Massachusetts.
With nearly 100 college coaches in attendance, the Region 1 tournament provides players with a unique opportunity to grab somebody’s attention. The GPS Crusaders boys, who, like everyone else in this country, have been watching the World Cup games from Brazil and take pride in knowing that U.S. Men’s team defender Geoff Cameron is from Attleboro and played for the Bulldogs program as a teenager, before it became GPS. In addition, midfielder Graham Zusi spent his youth career with GPS affiliates in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s usually important (to have a role model like Cameron) because I think you have to have things to aspire to,” Harriman explained. “I always say it’s important for these players to watch the game because that’s how you learn the most. So whether it’s Jeff Cameron or Steven Gerrard of England, as long as it’s someone who you aspire to and say ‘you know what, I want to be there or thereabouts’, then that’s fine. There’s no point in setting targets, and say ‘I’m just happy to be here’. OK, set targets and then when you push yourself to reach them, there’s no reason why you can’t”.
That target this weekend will be to advance and, who knows, maybe add a third title to what has already become a magical season for these GPS Crusaders boys team.
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