On a wet and cold weekend at Georgia Soccer Park the Lazers 94B Premier team faced tough competition on their way to winning the Concorde Fire Challenge Cup.

The group stage began with a match against RYSA in which the Lazers showed tremendous class winning with ease 3-0. The team possessed the ball well and dominated play in the midfield. The goals were scored by Lloyd Mohney (2) and Christian Paone.

The second match of the group phase was against Forsyth Fusion Gold. The Lazers started slow and were lucky not to go down a goal early on in the first half. Fusion had two clear breakaway chances due to defensive errors but failed to capitalize on their chances. In the second half the Lazers settled down more and regained possession of the ball and game eventually cruising to a 4-1 win.

The final opponent of the group phase was Concorde Fire White. They won both games on Saturday so it set the stage for a grueling match with the winner moving on to the final Sunday afternoon. The match was deadlocked at 0-0 by halftime with both teams having clear chances to take the lead. Christian Paone struck the post midway through the first half and Concorde missed a breakaway chance which was saved by keeper Joshua Slepicka. In the second half the Lazers showed more determination and pressed on in attack opening up Concorde several times. Lloyd Mohney scored from a corner kick to make it 1-0 and Kyle Ball netted the second to put the game out of reach at 2-0.

In Sunday afternoon’s final, the Lazers squared off with Concorde Fire North Black. The match started slow with each team not wanting to make mistakes. Both teams had chances in the opening half of play with Concorde missing an open net at one point in the half. At half time the team talk was about keeping possession of the ball and spreading Concorde out to find space in the channels between them. The second half was a brilliant display of football. Jarrett Howard added pace on the left flank and Tommy Duda battled in the central midfield winning ball after ball and restarting the attack. Duda, Ball, and Mohney linked up several times in the second half creating opportunities on goal and finally midway into the half Lloyd Mohney came through with a terrific goal to put the team up 1-0. It was a great defensive effort in the second half. Tye Rochner and Andrew Hubeli shut down Concorde’s target player constantly allowing the outside backs to push up and add to the attack. Tommy Duda wins Man of the Match honors for the final due to his outstanding defensive play in the midfield.

It was a well deserved victory for the team. The team played hard all weekend and fitness proved to be the winning ingredient in the end as the team was able to battle late in the championship match utilizing a deep bench at the same time.

The champion ’94 Boys Lazers Premier wraps up the preseason tournaments for the Boys and Girls teams. Five of the 12 teams who competed over the last three weekends made the finals, and two were crowned champions.

Team Members:
Kyle Ball, Zack Behnke, Tommy Duda, Andrew Hubeli, Tye Rochner, Joshua Slepicka, Jarrett Howard, Lloyd Mohney, Chad Landgren, Austin Ingram, Christian Walker, Christian Paone, Bradley Robertson, Alan Kim, Aaron Thornley, Chris Therrell, and James Dunn