This just in from the Bloomfield Soccer Club:

Bloomfield Force U18 Girls "Builds a team" to Win US Youth Soccer National Crown

To simply qualify as a Regional champion for the Final Four of youth soccer is an amazing accomplishment in itself.  For a club that started out with only four teams in the early nineties to now have over 30 teams and now a national champion is nothing short of miraculous.  But to these Force girls, simply getting to this event was not enough, these girls wanted it bad.  The team has been together since they were U10 and although many people had doubts whether a smaller club like the Force could do it they proved that they could.  This was 9 years of hard work and dedication by many people.

On Wednesday July 25, 2007 the Bloomfield Force U18 girls embarked on a week long journey to the top of youth soccer in their age bracket.  The Force girls whom won Region 2 championships with a 6-2 drubbing of St. Louis Soccer Club in the final back in late June now had to face Solar from Texas in game one (Region 3 Champs).  On a beautiful but slick surface the Force started sluggishly with Solar taking a shock lead following a corner kick that could not get cleared.  It was evident that Solar had a great game plan and tried to hold on to their 1-0 lead.  They did until midway through the second 45 minute half when Laura Heyboer anticipated a back header from the stellar Solar backline defenders and she pounced to round the keeper and smash the ball into the empty net.  With the ref signaling that only two minutes of injury time would be played the Force were preparing for the final score to be a draw.  Then another mazy run by Heyboer (Michigan State) forced a corner that she hurriedly delivered onto the head of Amanda Bowery (Michigan).  Her header was parried by the Solar keeper and Selena Stanski (our Canadian forward, U of Detroit) pounced on the rebound to win the game for Force.

The girls then had over 24 hours to rest and a massive game against two-time national champ Slammers coming up.  In all honesty the Slammers were probably favored coming into the round robin tournament due to their experience of winning it twice before.  But Force felt a psychological advantage due to the fact that they beat Slammers in the Surf cup final exactly one year ago.  Force raced to a 2-0 lead within twenty minutes.  Goals coming from midfield maestro and co-captain Lindsey Haroutunian (Villanova) and Jackie Carron (Michigan) who is simply one of the best defenders in the nation.  Unfortunately, Force then suffered a double blow in the game.  Slammers came fighting back and tied the game at 2-2 and then Selena Stanski was injured and broke her arm adding to our long list of injuries which included co-captain Allison "beef jerky" Drutchas (Davison) and Brittany "Skittles" Boeckel.  Other players playing through injuries included Deana Kinter (Eastern Michigan), Nicole Dulyea (Western Michigan), Kelsey Tait (Michigan State) and Courtney Shegos (Michigan State).  All of these girls have recovered and were extremely brave and instrumental in the Force title win.  This game was almost as epic as the repeat which would take place two days later with a national crown on the line. Game three was against an extremely talented World Class Arsenal team coached by the U16 girl's National team coach.  Force only needed a tie and with only 8 minutes left the lead that Laura Heyboer had given them seemed good enough until Arsenal finally got one past the brilliant Jill Fliestra (Michigan State).  With the clock winding down and nerves high the Force counter attacked through Heyboer (co-captain) and her long run was rewarded with the winning goal - Bloomfield Force through to the National Final game.

The National Final was exactly that, the best two teams in the nation.  It was an epic battle that was extremely technical, tactical and physical.  Both teams playing four ninety minute games in four days is quite extraordinary. Slammers controlled the first 20 minutes of each half but Force had the better of the last 25 minutes of each half.  Each team had several chances with the best ones falling to Force.  When it seemed like Force would prevail at some point the Slammers were awarded a dubious free kick on the edge of the box.  The Slammers girl bent the free kick over the wall and into the top corner for a 1-0 lead with only 11 minutes on the clock. This was devastating to the girls especially to a brilliant back-line led by one of the players of the match Sara Stanzcyk (UCONN), Courtney Shegos, Caroline Zambricki (Michigan) and Jackie Carron. As the minutes rolled away Force kept playing and in a crazy 2-3-5 formation actually grabbed an amazing equalizer in the 90th minute of play.  Heyboer whipped in a great ball and Amanda Bowery somehow got on the end of it to send the game to extra-time. In extra-time the Force midfield dominated with Caitlin Murnahan (Mars Hills), Co-captain Kelsey Tait (Michigan State), Jessie Leonard (Boston College) and Danni Halewyn (Central Michigan) who was one of the Force most consistently excellent players during the week. The game had no break through in extra time so it went to penalties.  Marie Zaccagni (Northwood) coolly slotted to keep Force in it then Slammers missed to leave the game poised at 5-5.  It was down to Nicole Dulyea to win a national championship with one PK and she did (other scorers on the pk's were Sarah Stanzcyk, Kelsey Tait, Jessie Leonard and Heyboer).  As you can imagine the scenes of jubilation were incredible and will live long in the memory.  Years of hard work from Andy Wagstaff, Paul Doroh, Marc Frankland and Dr. Mike Haroutnunian who got the team into so many top events and led the club throughout the last 8 years as Force President.  Golden boot winner was Laura Heyboer and Golden Glove went to Jill Fliestra.  Now it is time for Force to build more championship teams.

Kind regards,

Andrew Wagstaff

President & Director of Coaching,

Bloomfield Force