After weeks of preparation, the Northwood soccer team traveled to Florida to play in one of the most famous soccer tournaments in the country, the IMG Cup. Once more, the Huskies didn’t disappoint and achieved excellent results.
This was Northwood’s first time competing in the highly-recruited tournament, and the soccer team lived up to their reputation as one of the best prep soccer programs in the country by achieving first place (U19) and second place (U18).
The Winners of the IMG Cup U19 Division (Photo: Black Rock FC)
The tournament started on Friday, December 20th with the U19 team facing A.S.Truitier Haiti, and winning 7-1 in a game completed dominated by the Huskies. After missing a few opportunities, the soccer team scored the first goal and after that, the team kept looking to increase their advantage and the goals kept coming. In the afternoon, it was the U18’s turn and they tied 2-2 against Blast FC on a very split match. In the first half, Northwood dominated the game and got the advantage with goals by Peter Tcheleshev ’22 and an amazing acrobatic kick by Luke Smith ’21. In the second half, the team decreased their intensity and Blast FC scored in the only two chances they had. Despite fighting until the end to obtain victory, the Huskies weren’t able to achieve it.
The second day brought with it strong winds, but not even that was enough to stop both teams from achieving victory. The U19 ‘s faced YPT and won by 8-1, in a match where the goals started early, with Mateo Rodriguez ’20 scoring only four minutes into the game. The Huskies were starving for more and kept scoring throughout the game, completely dominating the match. At the same time, the U18 were facing Chargers SC in a game that ended up in a victory of 3-0 for the Huskies.
The last day of the tournament had the U19 team face Fluminense FC in a game that ended up tied 1-1. This tie was enough to guarantee the first place for the Huskies, who finished their first participation in the tournament as undefeated champions. The U18 team faced IMG Academy U18 team and, just like the U19s, tied the game 1-1. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to place the Huskies in the first place of the group.
The ending of the tournament brought not only happiness and pride, but also some sadness, since two of our players, Ryan Combe ’20 and John Sinclair ’20, left the team and the school, in order to proceed their student-athlete carriers at Akron and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, respectively. We wish them all the luck in the world!
