The Único U13 boys soccer team punched their ticket to the National Presidents Cup championship with a 1-0 semifinal win over Harvard FC – Español of Illinois on Monday in Wichita, Kansas.
Único, a Santa Barbara-based club, will take on Hulmeville SC from Pennsylvania in the championship match. Earlier in the week, Único defeated Hulmeville, the No. 10 team in the nation, by a score of 2-0.
“I could not be more proud of this group of boys for all of their hard work the last 10 months to make it to the National finals,” Único head coach Pablo Alaníz said. “This is our eighth tournament this season and we have made it to the finals of all eight tournaments. This is the biggest prize of them all and just one more game to go.”
A 2-1 win on Sunday night by Único against Chelsea East of North Texas set the table for Monday’s semifinal victory. Vincent Alcaraz and Henry Medina scored in that pool play win.
“In our last pool play game all 16 boys played and contributed to the win,” Único coach Rob Brennan said. “We had to turn around and play 10 hours later for the semifinals and the boys answered the challenge. Last night we hit the crossbar or post five times and it was great to see all the boys play well.”
In the semifinals against Harvard FC, Único came out of the gates in full control by dominating possession. In the first 15 minutes, Cisco Alcaraz made a perfect cross to Medina, who scored the lone goal of the match.
“Harvard FC was a very big and talented team, but our center midfield of Nito Quintero, Cruz Alvarado and Bradley Brennan helped take control of the game,” Brennan said.
From there, the Único defense, led by goalkeeper Tanner Hug, took center stage and shut down Harvard FC as they held on for the 1-0 win.
“Tanner came up huge again today, stopping a penalty kick and knocking a ball over the bar in the final 10 minutes,” Brennan said. “Tanner has been the man of the match every game and has only given up one goal all tournament.”
Players include Lucas Aguilar, Francisco Alcaraz, Vincent Alcaraz, Cruz Alvarado, Jonathan Bay Mendez, Bradley Brennan, Sebastian Gonzalez, Tanner Hug, Henry Medina, Henry Metcalfe, Cannon Miller, Sergio Morales, Nito Quintero, Chris Ramos, Joshua Santiago, Andrew Vasquez and Henry Zylstra.
The team is coached by Pablo Alaníz with assistant manager and coach Rob Brennan. The team manager is Brianna Aguilar.