Weston’s 94/95 U11 boys Nike team headed north this past weekend (10/1/05) to Clearwater to play in Countryside’s 2005 Soccer Challenge eager to show they belong along the state’s best. With Weston’s U11 Premier boys team in the other bracket, an all Weston final was not out of the question. But first, Weston would have to be get by 2 of Region C’s best teams, Countryside and Manatee Magic. After, beating Players Club, from Bradenton  rather convincingly 6-3 in the opening match, Weston took on Countryside’s Premier

U11 team for the match of the evening. This game turned into a ‘classic’. After a hard fought first half, the game was still a draw. Weston struck first in the 2nd half, with a classic run to the corner flag and a 2 touch finish from the cross. But Countryside answered minutes later with a hard shot from outside the box. The game would stay even until the final 30 seconds when Weston sealed the win with a counter attack goal off a well placed punt from Steven Tuaty. "Just a great total team effort" Coach Enriquez commented after the game. "We have never played a game so fast, with so much continuous pressure on the ball". Coach Triplett of Countryside said to Coach Enriquez after the game.

 

Weston still had to win 1 more game to advance to the finals. In the final game, the Fury  quickly gave up 3 goals and it proved just too much to overcome. They lost 4-3 fighting to the last whistle. Although, Weston missed the finals on a tiebreaker (goal difference), it turned out to be quite a learning experience for the team.

Coach Stephen summarized the weekend, "the teams new players, Alex, Brennan, Nico, Cesar, Justin and Alan are just starting to get comfortable with the teams returning core players, Steven, Evan, Samuel, Ryan, Rodolfo and Juan. This tournament showed us our strengths as well as our weaknesses. We still have a lot of hard work ahead."