The Ohio Elite Boys U14 Academy finished off an impressive State Cup for the club, bringing home its fourth Championship in 2011 with a 1-0 victory over CUP Gold. In addition to the US Youth Soccer Ohio South State Cup title, the team is also the two-time defending US Club Soccer Ohio Cup champions.
The match started with both teams displaying quality possession leading to a couple half-chances for each. Just moments after Zane Ross, who assisted on the game-winner in the semi-finals, nearly connected with Reid Abney, who scored the game winner in the semi-finals, the Ohio Elite defense cleared the ball from their own goal area.
Then, it happened! With nearly 20 minutes played, co-captain Max Pochobradsky saw the opposing goalkeeper off his line and took a shot from 40 yards out. The CUP goalkeeper made the initial save, but Connor Hawkins was there for the rebound tucking it neatly in the side net for the 1-0 lead.
Goalkeeper Jake Mutlu and defender Daniel Bundschuh led the defensive stand in the second half to preserve the victory. Even with the increased pressure, OE maintained its composure and had a couple chances of their own late in the game to seal the win, but CUP defenders twice cleared the ball from their own goal line. The shutout streak for the team is now more than 630 minutes spanning more than 8 games, including all 5 during the tournament.
Head coach Mike Cullina said, “I can’t say enough about the work rate and organization of the entire team. We lost a few leads late in games during the fall season and the boys learned from it. At half-time we talked about how those experiences prepared us for this moment and it was incredibly rewarding as coach to see them learn from our past failures to secure this wonderful victory.”
The team was coached in the final preliminary and semi-final matches by Asst. DOC, Marc Sabin who said, “Seeing the boys celebrate after the game and knowing how far this group has come was great. This is a tremendous day for them and the program. I am glad to play a part and am very proud of them.”
The victory comes on the heels of an impressive run for the boys U16 Academy which fell in the semi-finals to the eventual champions and the boys U15 Academy which tied the eventual champions in pool play but narrowly missed advancing out of their bracket after going undefeated.
“I couldn`t be prouder of growth and development of our players throughout the club over the past three years and today was very rewarding,” said Mike Cullina, Boys Director of Coaching. “The ability of the team to continue their play at such a high level and advance to the final without their head coach is a testament to our entire club.”
“It has been five years since a boy’s team at Ohio Elite won a State Cup and four since one made it to the semi-finals, but I look at more than just our State Cup and the progress we have seen from the entire boys program over the past few years is incredible,” said Tim Lesiak, Executive Director of Coaching. “We are proud to have four teams representing Ohio South at Regionals.”
