VUSA Timbers Blue come away with youth soccer state title

With victories on Saturday and Sunday, the Vancouver United Soccer Alliance Timbers Blue won the Washington Youth Soccer Challenge Cup title for the boys under-17 age division.

The Challenge Cup is Washington Youth Soccer’s intermediate-level tournament for advanced competition teams. Its champions qualify to play in the U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV Presidents Cup 2011, which takes place June 14-19 near Salt Lake City.

The Timbers Blue won a penalty-kick tiebreaker in Saturday’s semifinals, then defeated the Federal Way United Warriors 1-0 in Sunday’s championship match. Myles Belnavis scored the goal in the title match.

Both games were played at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.

Saturday’s semifinal match against Eastside FC ended in a 1-1 draw. Corey Davidson scored an unassisted goal for the Timbers Blue. VUSA won the tie-breaker 4-1, with Cole Howard, David Orchard, Juan Salinas-Heredia and Davidson converting for the Blue.

Here is the complete roster for the VUSA Timbers Blue team of boys born in 1993: Belnavis, Davidson, Orchard, Salinas-Heredia, Howard, Joseph Whalen, Sterling Gray, Austin Vela, Luis Marcial, Blake Cardon, Edgar Gonzalez, Ziad Hourani, Gary Kirby, Ryan Cebula, Tobias Martin, Daniel Cohen, Kyle Miller, Christian Glidden.

The coaches were Jonathon Davidson assisted by Colby Stricker and Matthew Benes.

Boys under-15 — Two teams from Clark County were eliminated in the Challenge Cup semifinals on Saturday. VUSA Timbers Red lost 1-0 to Wenatchee Fire Black. Chinook Fire (Martinez) fell 2-1 to Eastside FC (Barros).

Playing in the state cup for the VUSA Timbers Red were Austin Cassity, Sam Niedner, Christian Asivido, Foster Langsdorf, Justin Koga, Caleb Morrisey, Sam Pizot, Austin Horner, Lennox Mandel, Shawn Marion, Grayson Cropper and Josh Lindstrom. The coach was Garen Bedoyan.

The roster for the Chinook Fire was not available.

Championship Cup

It’s been a disappointing couple of weekends for VUSA Timbers teams in the state’s top tournament.

On Feb. 6, the Timbers Red boys under-18 team lost in an eight-round of penalty kick tiebreaker in the state quarterfinals, ending its attempt to repeat as state champions. The same Timbers team reached the regional quarterfinals in 2010 and beat the Chicago Fire Academy entry at a prestigious tournament in Orlando, Fla.

In the boys under-17 division the VUSA boys under-17 Timbers Red team lost 3-2 in the Championship Cup semifinals to an opponent from Eastside FC. Details from that match, played Saturday in Tukwila, were not available.