AYSO ALL-STAR ROUNDUP

U-10 Girls Win Pony Express

Pali Rox!, a local U-10 AYSO girls all-star team, dominated its competition on the way to winning the Pony Express Invitational at Santana Regional Park in Corona over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. The Rox, under the leadership of Head Coach Phil Pecsok, braved cold weather and 40-mile-per-hour winds to outscore their five opponents 29-4. ‘I’m most proud of the fact that of the 29 goals we scored, there were assists on 22 of them,’ Pecsok said. ‘We had phenomenal passing the whole tournament and our defense was also incredible. We were only giving up two or three shots a game.’ In pool play, Pali Rox! shut out Encino Balboa 10-0, blanked Van Nuys 4-0 and beat Culver City 7-1 to finish first. In the semifinals, they faced host Corona and won 5-1, with Taylor Pecsok bending in a corner kick for the winning goal late in the first half. Monday’s championship game pitted the Rox against a determined Riverside squad. In the first half, with the wind at their backs, Pali stormed to a 2-0 lead. Riverside answered with two goals of its own in the second half when Pali was against the wind. Regulation ended in a tie and neither team scored in the first five-minute overtime period. Moments before the final whistle, which would have sent the game into a penalty-kick shootout, Cassie Jernigan dribbled through three defenders, broke in alone on the Riverside goalie and scored to give Pali Rox! the championship. The U-10 division is seven versus seven and Jernigan scored seven goals in the tournament and was named most valuable player. Taylor Pecsok and Elizabeth Seaman each scored five goals, Emma Seaman and Laila Touran each added four goals and Kaitlyn Nyman had two. Defenders Julia Barlow, Caitlin Bremner and Carmen Flood were solid throughout the tournament and goalie Gillian Ondaatje made several key saves to preserve shutouts in Pali’s first two games. U-10 Boys Lars Ekstrom’s ‘A’ team, called FC Pali, tied Corona 3-3, defeated Hollywood Wilshire 3-0 and beat Diamond Bar 8-0 to finish first in pool play. In the semifinals, FC beat Long Beach 3-0 on goals by Ian Ekstrom, Quinn McGinley and Reece Pascoe. ‘In the opening game, we were up 3-1 bounced back strong next three games In the finals, Palisades lost 4-1 to Chino Hills. Kieran Kerwin scored in the first quarter to give FC a 1-0 lead but Pali was unable to score again. Pascoe, Ekstrom and Leo Kaplan were FC’s leading scorers, but nine of the 10 players on the roster netted goals during the tournament. Defenders Evan Clark, John Thomas, Lucas Gregory and goalie Josh Lettiere were consistent all the way through the tournament. FC Pali will represent Region 69 at the Area P playoffs this weekend in Culver City. In the ‘B’ flight, Pali Storm, coached by Eric Pfahler went 2-0-1 in pool play and just missed advancing to the elimination round. Dave Sanderson’s Pulverizers, Palisades’ developmental team, also played in the tournament and tied its first game. In the medal round, Pali lost to Woodland Hills U-14 Girls Palisades, coached by Mollie Milligan, won its pool in the Corona Flight with 13 points, one more than Camarillo, Menifee and Jurupa. Pali ended up finishing fourth behind teams from Long Beach, Woodland Hills and Menifee. Milligan’s squad, consisting of players from Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Topanga, tied its first game, 1-1, won its second game 3-2 and narrowly lost its third game 1-0 in Pool D. In the semifinal round, Palisades lost to Pool E runner-up Woodland Hills. Then, in the third place game, Pali fell to the Menifee Mavericks. Long Beach beat Woodland Hills to win the Corona Flight. Palisades’ U-12 boys ‘A’ team competed in Pool B of the Corona Flight while the ‘B’ all-stars played in the Norco Flight. Two local girls teams were entered in the U-12 division. The Pali-Cats won their final game to finish third in Pool A of the Norco Flight while Pali TNT played in Pool B. The Pali Tigers competed in the Corona Flight and tied their first game.