Team Chicago Academy-Internacional continued its impressive run of form with three more convincing MRL victories in Rockford this past weekend. Heading into the weekend with a 3-0-0 record Internacional faced Shattuck-St. Mary’s – an elite soccer boarding school in Minnesota in the Saturday morning game. While Shattuck was a very good soccer-playing side, it was not a match for Internacional and Quincy Kellett in particular. Quincy recorded a hat-trick in the opening 10 minutes of the contest to effectively secure the win for Internacional.

Inter opened with a spirited pressing game that Shattuck’s defenders really struggled with. Two of Quincy’s goals were almost carbon copies as Maddie Pokora found a streaking Keely Theobald in behind the Shattuck back-line, and she delivered a perfect pass for Quincy to find the back of the net. The third goal was all Quincy as she opportunistically chased down a soft back-pass and out-tackled the keeper followed by an easy tap-in. Inter created 3-4 other 100% chance before the interval, but could not convert.

The 2nd half was a lot more even, but with 12 minutes left Anna Tørsløv hit a shot from 25 yards out that beat the Shattuck keeper for the final score 4-0. Hannah Parrish got the shutout in goal.

In the 2nd game of the day Inter defeated previously undefeated Michigan Jaguars 5-1. Miranda Lambert opened the scoring 15 minutes in from Alena Sidwell and Maddie Pokora, and she doubled her tally 5 minutes later after a perfect give-and-go with Quincy Kellett at the top of the penalty box. MI Jags halved the Inter lead two minutes into the 2nd half, but then Kiley Czerwinski took over the game. First she scored off a corner combination with Anna Tørslev, then she beat 3 players before finding Grace Anderson who in turn found Alena Sidwell for the tap-in. And in the very last play of the game Kiley beat two defenders in driving to the goal, and finished perfectly with a hard, driven shot to the foot of the far post.

On Sunday Internacional had its best performance of the year in beating Missouri State Cup Champions Lou Fusz-Wipke 5-0. A very close 1st half ended on a positive note for Inter as Alena Sidwell notched the eventual game-winner with three minutes left in the half after Sarah Laws and Mallory Mollenhauer’s great work.

However, the 2nd half was a totally different story, as Inter finished off Lou Fusz with three goals in the opening 10 minutes. First Kiley Czerwinski drove towards the goal and was felled inside the box. Jori Romano stepped up and doubled the lead. The next goal was an absolute perfect “training ground” exercise come to fruition. Alena Sidwell played Kiley in behind on the wing, and Kiley took one big touch out in front, before she drove across the defender along the end-line and delivered a perfect ball to the top of the 6 for Alena to smash home. Kudos to Quincy Kellett and Miranda Lambert, too, as they made strong runs to the near and far posts to occupy the Lou Fusz defenders and keeper. Miranda Lambert then made it 4-0 and 5-0. First from Alena Sidwell and then on a header off a perfect, driven Kiley Czerwinski corner. Hannah Parrish got the shutout in goal and the back-line of Maddie Pokora, Jori Romano, Emily Dickens, and Tori Christiansen was stellar, too.

Internacional now needs two wins in its remaining three games to clinch the MRL Premier title. Up next are two games in Muscatine, Iowa on September 27th and 28th.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro also continued its winning ways in MRL Premier play with a 3-0 over Michigan Rush in Rockford. The goals took awhile to come, but when they did they came in quick succession in the final 18 minutes of the game. First Kerry Abello hammered the ball into the top-corner from 22 yards out, and then Jordan King drove a ball across the MI Rush goal for Kerry to finish at the back post. Finally, Jamie Goralski struck another perfect shot to the upper-90 for the final 3-0 score. Bailee Witt got the shutout in goal.

Next up for Cruzeiro is a State Cup game v. Rockford this Saturday at 1pm at PlayUSA, and the next MRL games are October 4th and 5th in Overland Park, Kansas.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia continued its U14 MRL Premier II Division play. In their first match against Lou Fusz M. Elam (MO) on Saturday afternoon the game ended in a tie at 2-2. Early on in the first half Bahia scored a goal against the run of play to take a 1-0 lead going into the half. The play started with Natalie Massa collecting the ball in the midfield. Driving forward she played a ball into Emma Crosswait who played it back to Natalie who then played a great ball over the top for Emma to run on to and calmly finish. The second half was a different story, Bahia opened up with a great 20 minutes that resulted in the second goal but should have been four. The second goal looked just like the training ground and started with Jeff (Jennifer) Pochyly playing a ball into Emma Crosswait. Emma drove end-line to serve a perfect ball onto the running path of Sophia Majher who buried her chance past the keeper. Unfortunately Bahia could not hold on to their lead and gave up two late goals to earn a tie.

In Sunday’s game, Bahia faced J.B. Marine Rasch (MO) which was a rematch from the Spring when the teams played to a 1-1 draw. This time Bahia played well in all phases and came away with a convincing 5-0 win. The game winner came off a great ball played out of the back by Carolena Lund that sprung Emma Crosswait in behind the opponents defense. Emma collected the ball on the right side and drove to goal releasing a fantastic shot to the upper left corner where the GK had no chance. Emma continued to have an impact and played a ball back to Zaira Solis who collected the ball and buried her shot past the keeper for the second goal. The next two goals were credited to Paige Miller who scored by driving in from the right side. The first started with Allison Anderson switching the point of attack and finding Paige in the offensive third where she beat three players before unleashing her shot hitting the inside of the far post. The second was a defensive mishap that Paige opportunistically took advantage of by driving inside before placing her shot over the keeper. The final goal was scored with a nicely weighted ball played into Molly Grant from Zaira Solis. Molly finished her chance to round out the scoring and solidified a great match for Bahia.