NOGA Premier U-12 Team from Long Island Wins Empire Cup

A recently formed NOGA Premier Soccer team comprised of twelve year old boys from Nassau and Suffolk Counties and coached by Dave Bond competed in the Empire Cup Tournament in Albany NY on July 14th and 15th. They had never competed together as a team and had only trained together a dozen times but were registered to compete in an ultra-competitive bracket.

The boys are all travel soccer players for various teams on Long Island. Many of them had trained with the Olympic Development Program and played last year for Long Island Junior Select teams. Despite the wealth of individual talents on the team, this NOGA Premier team was not expected to "win big" in part because of their limited experience playing together as a team and due to the fierce competition that they would have to face including former teammates from soccer powerhouse LIJSL.

In their competition debut, NOGA Premier pulled off an incredible 5-0 upset in their first game against the Select team from Canada. Later that afternoon, the defensive duel against the favored South Jersey Select squad ended in a 0-0 tie game. The next morning the boys faced the host Capital District Olympic Development team and clearly dominated them in a 3-1 victory. After that, it was a close and heated battle against some old teammates as they faced fellow Long Island-ers LIJSL, a very talented Select team. NOGA Premier won that battle by a score of 2-1 and was seeded first in the playoff round.

The Semi-Finals pitted NOGA Premier in a rematch against the Capital District Select team. The host team fell to the kids from Long Island again with a score of 4-1. It was then a long wait through some torrential downpours to see if they would meet LIJSL again for an all-Long Island Final or if South Jersey Select would make it to the big game. Regulation time ended in a tie but after two overtime periods, LIJSL was eliminated from the competition by South Jersey.

Perhaps it was the way they worked as a team, maybe it was the fact that they were having so much fun playing together...whatever the reason, NOGA Premier was simply on fire. Despite the close and scoreless game one day prior, NOGA Premier trounced South Jersey Se-lect by a score of 5-1 to win First Place and bring the Empire Cup to Long Island.

Net-keepers Tyler Biscone of Garden City who plays for the Garden City Thunderbolts and Keegan Peterson of Oyster Bay who plays for Syosset each played equal time and the pair never allowed more than a single goal-against per game with two shutouts! They really played up to the level of competition and the high standards set by their incredible teammates to give near flawless performances. Both keepers were vocal and effective communica-tors that were blessed with solid and thinking defenders.

From Hempstead were super talents Kevin Chavez, Edwin Gonzolez and Chamion "BoBo" Green. Each contributed greatly to both offensive and defensive efforts. Louis "Hat Trick" Yablans of Brookville, Matt Pepe of Jericho, Brian McCann of Plainview and Danny Miecuna of Syosset were assets to the team wherever they played and certainly helped on the scoreboard. Defensive powerhouses were in the form of Jamie Macchia of Massapequa and Anthony Zaino of Westbury who were both physical and effective players. From Suffolk County, tremendous offensive support was provided by Chris Chavez of Deer Park Sal Gualtieri of Commack, Rocky Famiglietti of Centereach and Tommy Vargas and Alex Witonsky, both of Smithtown.

Special thanks go out to Hector Chavez of Hempstead for assisting Coach Bond and to Doug Peterson of Oyster Bay for his management skills.

Nobody expected these kids to win like they did but they played as a team with no weak links and performed as a unit. They did not dwell upon their lack of experience together but rather just did what years of superior Long Island soccer training had taught them to do and heeded the words of Coach Bond. They were inspired, they were spectacular and they brought the Empire Cup home to Long Island.