Illustration: Northwood Soccer (Instagram).
Over the last weekend, the soccer teams hosted the Black Rock FC Winter Indoor Cup & Showcase in New Hampshire, which took place between the 11th and 12th of February. The team left Lake Placid on the 10th of February and, after a 5-hour bus ride, arrived at Merrimack, New Hampshire.
The first day of the showcase was a challenging beginning for both the U19 team & the U17 team. The U19 team started the weekend with a tough game against High Mowing but could not score. The boys fought hard and created many chances but couldn’t capitalize on them. The U17 Team started off the weekend with their hardest opponent, the New England Revolution, an MLS Academy, and one of the country’s best teams. The game started off with the Black Rock team dominating the first 10 minutes, with Mitch Baker ‘25 breaking the deadlock, opening up the score to make it 1-0 with a beautiful goal assisted by his teammate Leo Doyle ‘25. However, Baker’s goal wasn’t enough to get the win against the Revs, and they came back, scoring two goals, and won the game 2-1. “I felt very excited to play against a top team, and I realized that they’re not better than me, and I’m as good as them, but they just play in an academy,” Machai Davis ‘25 said with a lot of confidence. The U19 team had one last game against Valencia CF, where Black Rock FC came back from behind after being down 1-0 and won the game 4-1. The players who scored: Sam Knauf ‘24, with two goals; Andres Vitteri ‘24, with one goal; and Aly El Mofty ‘23, who scored his first Northwood goal.
The second and final day of the showcase was a thrilling day. The U17 team first competed against IHC. They were exhausted from their previous game and lost the game 4-2. The goals scored by Baker ‘25 and AJ Etumnu Jr. ‘25. The U19 Team wrapped up their weekend with a significant game against the New England Revolution but unfortunately lost 1-0 despite strong performances from Andres Viteri ‘24 and Sachiel Ming ‘24. The U17 team wrapped up their weekend with another game against IHC, but this time came out on top with a 2-1 victory and goals scored by Mitchell Baker ‘25 and Diego Green ‘25.
“Over the weekend, the boys didn’t put out their best performance. We let down our expectations, but fortunately, we got a good understanding of what we need to work on over the next week or so. We will focus on these things in our training to ensure we are prepared for Manhattan. For me, the standout players were Elm Penti ‘24, who made some great saves, keeping us in the games, and Baker ‘25 up top scoring every game,” expressed Koah Paye ‘24.
The Black Rock FC will travel to Manhattan next week.
