Boca Women Begin Season-Men Victorious
June 8, 2008
The Boca U23 women’s team began their 2008 MSSL season in Lakewood Sunday afternoon capturing a 5-3 win over the Pittsgrove Irish while losing a tough 1-0 battle against the TSF Academy in the nightcap. Meanwhile in West Chester, PA the Boca U23 men kept their unbeaten record in-tact by defeating the Harleysville SC 1-0.
Boca Women Begin Season-Men Victorious
U23 women split games while men are victorious
LAKEWOOD, NJ (June 8, 2008) – The Jersey Shore Boca U23 women’s team began their 2008 Mid-Atlantic Summer Showcase League (MSSL) season at the John Patrick Sports Complex in Lakewood Sunday afternoon capturing a 5-3 win over the Pittsgrove Irish from South Jersey while losing a tough 1-0 battle against the TSF Academy in the nightcap.
Against Pittsgrove, the Boca women started the scoring in the seventeenth minute when former Shore Regional HS standout Katie Minervini (Oceanport) found Heather Steadman (Lanoka Harbor) inside the box from the right side.
Steadman, a rising junior at LaSalle University who is coached in college by one of Boca’s all-time former club standouts Paul Royal, snapped home a header for the U23 women’s first goal of the season.
After Pittsgrove evened the score in the twenty-sixth minute, Minervini found the back of the net two minutes later with an upper 90 rocket from 20 yards out after College of New Jersey senior Erin Cunliffe (Lakewood) played her a perfect through ball.
Boca added their third goal of the afternoon in the forty-first minute when NJIT standout Kori Washington (Ewing) buried her one-on-one chance against the Pittsgrove keeper to the far left post.
Boca and Pittsgrove added two more goals apiece before the match ended 5-3 with the remaining Boca scoring coming from Kutztown University’s Tristan Figel (Middlesex) from Cunliffe in the sixtieth minute and Minervini from Cunliffe one minute later.
In their second match of the day, the Boca women battled a tough TSF Academy side step-for-step until the fifty-sixth minute when TSF’s Brianna Wolfson turned a Boca defensive deflection into a goal for the only tally of the game.
Former Brick Memorial and Lock Haven University star Emily Wagner (Brick) was between the pipes for Boca for both games.
Meanwhile in West Chester (PA), the Boca U23 men kept their unbeaten record in-tact by defeating the Harleysville SC (PA) 1-0 on a free kick by Bucknell University senior Mark Schmiegel (Toms River) with just over 10 minutes remaining in the match.
The goal was set up when Boca newcomer James Gannon (Toms River) made a hard run at the Harleysville defense on the right side and was fouled just outside the penalty area.
Schmiegel, a Jersey Shore Boca club veteran, calmly stepped up with a left footed shot and bent the ball around the Harleysville wall placing it into the lower left corner to secure the victory.
Charles Cunliffe (Lakewood), who begins his sophomore year at Rowan University this fall, produced another solid effort between the pipes for Boca making several key saves throughout the afternoon to secure the shut-out.
The Boca U23 men and women both return to MSSL action on Sunday June 15 at the John Patrick Sports Complex and will hold their annual summer “Meet & Greet” event at Surf Taco in Jackson after the games.
Jersey Shore Boca is participating in MSSL for the fifth consecutive year this summer as one of the league’s inaugural founding members.
MSSL is a regional summer soccer league, which is specifically designed for collegiate players under the age of twenty-three and is fully sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), the national governing body for adult amateur soccer.
The Jersey Shore Boca summer soccer program is officially sponsored by Surf Taco, a popular Mexican themed restaurant chain with seven locations throughout the jersey shore.
Boca has been a fixture in the soccer community since 1978 and is one of the most respected soccer clubs on the East Coast.
The Club is celebrating their 30-year anniversary in 2008.
For more information about the Boca U23 teams and all other the Jersey Shore Boca programs logon to the Club’s official web site at www.jerseyshoreboca.com
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