Soccer summer to remember

Locals help Erie FC U17 win National Cup in Denver

DENVER -- Five local girls have capped their summers in the best way possible: as national champions.

Erie FC's U17 girls soccer team competed in the National Cup late last month at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Made up of mostly northwestern Pennsylvania players, Erie FC also includes Jamestown's Brielle Berg and Amy Noll, Southwestern's Kait Rogers and Mackenzie Rogers, and Frewsburg's Audrey Eckwahl. Brielle's father, Jake, is also a coach with the team.

The National Cup is US Club Soccer's cup-based championship competition. Six teams qualify for the National Cup by winning state and regional qualifying tournaments.

Last summer, as members of the U16 team, Berg, Noll and the Rogers sisters lost in double-overtime of the championship game in Denver.

They weren't about to let that happen again.

After qualifying through a state cup, Erie FC earned an automatic bid to the National Cup.

"We played in a New York/Pennsylvania/West Virginia tournament," Jake Berg said. "Because that's a larger tournament, we qualified directly to Denver instead of having to go through a regional in Chicago."

The girls opened group play with a 3-1 win over Legends FC from Santa Clarita, California. In their second game, they faced a tough Sporting Iowa and came up just short in a 2-1 loss.

"Once we got to Denver, these kids played such technically sound soccer with intensity and pace. You kind of knew they were going to win it once we got there," Berg said. "Since we lost in the final, the girls were hungrier this year. They knew what it took to get there. You could tell the whole season, it would be a failed season if we didn't win."

In the third game of pool play, Erie FC was trailing Florida Kraze Krush 2-1 with 20 minutes remaining and had to win by at least two to get out of pool play. That's when Eckwahl, a "guest player" made her mark, scoring Erie's final two goals in a 4-2 comeback win.

"The last 30 minutes of that game were the most intense group of soccer I've watched from that group of kids," Berg said. "We still dominated possession. We were winning every 50-50 ball, it was basically just killing the clock. It was really a no-doubt last 20 minutes."

After a day off Thursday, Erie FC advanced to Friday's final, a rematch against Sporting Iowa. Erie came out strong, taking a 1-0 lead into halftime and extending it to 2-0 shortly after the break. Iowa battled back with a free-kick goal with 20 minutes remaining, but Erie's defense stood tall and closed out a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

"Out of the five (local girls), that whole group are the defenders, but Knoll plays a little more attack," Berg said. "Our defensive structure the whole week was unstoppable. We let in some goals we shouldn't have, but overall that back line did a great job. It's mostly those five girls that represent that back line."

The championship capped a season that began last November just after high school seasons ended. After indoor training twice a week and a couple of indoor friendlies throughout the winter, Erie FC played in the Great Lakes Alliance against teams from as far away as Kentucky and Cincinnati.

"Last year was hard. The girls wanted it last year, but we had a crazy situation where we had to win in Chicago before going to Denver in a month's span. It was tough on the players," Berg said. "This year, we had about a month off before we had to go. They were running every day, training three times a week. It showed and paid off."

Brielle Berg, Eckwahl and Kenzi Rogers will be seniors this year while Kait Rogers and Noll will be juniors. From three different school programs, it's unlikely any will reach the heights they did late last month in Colorado.

"I played my whole life. I played Division I and never even came close to anything like this as a youth player. These girls were super supportive. Some of the girls don't get as much playing time, but even for those girls it was a super cool experience." Jake Berg said. "Audrey and Kenzi are planning on playing in college. I'm not sure if Brielle has any goals of playing at the next level or not."

Jake Berg explained that even though the girls come from three different schools and join a team made up of mostly Pennsylvania girls for their travel season, they seem to have fit right in with the Erie FC program, led by head coach Elvir Vila.

"It's really about finding the right fit for that individual player and the proper coaches for your player to really push them to the next level and in the right direction technically with a high soccer IQ," he said. "That's really what it takes nowadays. Every kid on that field is athletic. What it comes down to is the system that you play and how technically sound you can be on that field.

"This is just super cool for the kids," Berg added. "They'll never forget this stuff."