South Coast reaches State Cup semis

The South Coast Storm, a boys 12 & Under Silver soccer team, has

completed two weekends of undefeated play to move into the semifinal

round of the Reebok State Cup Championships.

Following a tournament title in the Celtic Cup Gold Division in January,

the Storm opened the State Cup tournament earlier this month with wins

over Santa Anita, the Nitemares, and the PSA Panthers. The defensive play

along a back line consisting of Teddy Hammon, Grey Bailey, Nick McEachen,

and Anders Zimmerman, kept the opposition at bay. Goalie Jeff Roth also

was outstanding, yielding just one goal in three games.

In last weekend’s action, South Coast scored a 3-1 victory over Alliance

FC to move into the Round of 16, where Roth again proved to be tough in

the net as the Storm pinned a 2-0 shutout on Santa Clarita. In the

quarterfinals, a tough FC Santa Barbara Aggressive squad, which had

easily handled its previous tournament opponents, looked to do the same

against the Storm, which found itself in an early 2-0 hole.

But a Michael Sheedy goal in the final two minutes of the first half

brought South Coast within 2-1 at the intermission, and Michael Wolff’s

one-touch shot in the opening two minutes of the second half brought the

Storm even at 2-2.

Eugene Starikov, who also had two assists, scored the go-ahead goal at

the 44-minute mark for South Coast, Sheedy later would score again, and

the Storm defense shutdown FC Santa Barbara the rest of the way in an

eventual 4-2 win.