Derry Eagles Memorial Day Weekend Tournament Reports

Many Derry Eagles soccer teams participated in tournaments during the Memorial Day weekend in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Here are a few of the brief summaries from coaches about their observations and the player experiences.

U8 Boys – Bill Murphy

The Derry U8 Boys played some very competitive games over the Memorial Day Weekend Soccer Tournament. Our first game was against Amherst, with all players scoring or getting assists. Defender Jason Barton had a long shot that found the back of the onion sack! Game 2 was heart attack central as our Rhode Island opponent matched scores and near misses. Zach Pendenza and Stryker Coyle provided the offense while Terry Coyle and Jacob LaCourse were stalwarts on defense. Game 3 opponent was Cranston Rhode Island and another great game. Michael O'Brien, Kyle Croteau, and Nolan Morrison were key to the all the games with good ball control, passing and pressure defense. The final game was against Windham. Both teams battled from the opening whistle. Jacob Murphy made some great saves in goal and was a strong defender throughout the tourney.

U9 Girls – Dave Bulk

The U 9 Girls Teams split into 2 divisions for the Amherst Tournament. One team played in the U 10 Girls B Div. We finished with 15 goals scored and 3 allowed. Our girls were challenged by the size of the Classics but held tough to the physical play. In all games we controlled the ball for the majority of the games.

The other team played in a U 9 Co-ed Division. We were the only all girls team and most teams had only 1-2 girls. We finished with 9 goals scored and 10 allowed. Some of our players have just joined the team and all are getting used to each other. For playing mostly boy teams, they did very well. One coach told me during the game he told his boys to play easy on us as he watched one of our girls take the ball away from a boy and shoulder him to the ground....At this point he said..."they are tough!!"

Both teams did extremely well. A few of the fields were dirt and rocks, so play was tough. Other than that, the Amherst tournament ran well...

U9 Boys – Marty Wood

The U9 Boys played four close matches in Division 1. We played a Windham team, Nashua World Cup, Londonderry, and a very good Rhode Island All Star team in our last match of the weekend. The boys seemed to come together this past Sunday, and really played hard. I think the goalie training in addition to the field training, has really helped my team also.

U10 Girls – Phill Guerard

The Girls U10 division of the Derry Eagles competed this past weekend at the Memorial Day Classic Soccer Tournament hosted by the Amherst Soccer Club. Four matches were held across Saturday and Sunday with great weather for players and fans. Our opponents were Pittsfield Deco from MA, Merrimack, NH Dolphins, Amherst, NH, and the Ocean State Gladiators from Rhode Island. The girls played well in all four games as they needed to adjust their game plans based on their opponents and field size variations. They showed great character and sportsmanship on Saturday afternoon when faced against a more youthful Pittsfield Deco team while also playing very hard against a spirited Merrimack Dolphin team. Their Sunday morning matches were a pleasure to watch as team passing, play execution, scoring and denying defense was contagious. The team scored 17 goals and allowed only 4 throughout the weekend as scoring and assisting opportunities were had by all and helped to round out a great tournament.

U10 Boys – Dave Halpin/Glenn Davis

The two U10 Boys teams played together as one team in the the Amherst Memorial Tournament. The team played in the 8v8 division for the first time -- we regularly play a 6v6 format. Despite only a brief introduction to the new format, the team handled the larger field and added players beautifully allowing just 5 goals over 4 games and scoring 13 against teams from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

The highlight was a hard-fought game against a tough Rhode Island team where both the referees and the opposing coach commented that it was one of the best games of the tournament.

U11 Boys – Rick Carignan

The boys U11 team had a good Amherst tournament. They played up in the A division. Except for spotting the Classics 5 goals in the first half of the first game (8:00 am) they played them to a draw in the second half. Our second game was very close and a late second half goal snatched the game away from the boys…but they carried the play for most of the game. Our last game was also very close with the other team pulling out the win in the last 2 minutes of the game.

U13 Girls – Gary Burt

The Girls U13 team traveled to Needham to play in the Memorial Day tournament there. We played extremely well, winning the first game 3-0 against the SF Vikings. Maura Kane knocked in a nice crossing ball to start us off. That was followed by a break away goal from Maggie Cohoon. In the second half, Morgan Scott turned on a shot outside the 18 striking it into the upper corner.

In the second game, we played at a beautiful field on Wellesley College Campus. We went down early, 1-0 against the Coastal Maine Premier team, but fought hard throughout the match. Despite a number of opportunities, we could not put the ball in, and lost 1-0. Brenna McNally, Jenna Whittendburg, and Brit Sieg all played extremely well. Kudos to Morgan McGrath, who played the sweeper, allowing us to shift Jenna up front and give us a number of scoring plays.

Sunday night, we played the CFC, who needed a win to get to the playoffs. We played them even for 3/4 of the game, due in large part to superb play of Sam Breslin, who was simply amazing in goal. Amanda Hunt and Katherine Burt combined on a break away, but the shot went wide. With about 10 minutes to go in the match, CFC hit a corner that was not cleared, and eventually struck home. We lost 1-0, but demonstrated that we can play competitively with the premier teams. In fact, Coastal approached us after the game and advised that we would be in the premier bracket on Father's Day.

Needham runs an excellent tournament. Fields are great. It is well organized. Only two drawbacks--games are scattered throughout 4 towns, and they have an adamant "no cast" rule. Maggie was allowed to play with it the first game, but the referee removed her in the second game, and she was disqualified in the third.

U14 Girls – Thom Goodwin

Congrats to the U14 Girls! They played up a division and won the championship game in the U15 Girls age bracket. They won 2-0 against a good team from Rhode Island. Well done girls!