Marco Island Surge take two Silvers in 3V3 National Championships

Marco Island was well rep­resented by its 3v3 soccer teams at the 3v3 Chal­lenge National Champion­ships held at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Five Surge teams made the trip to the tourna­ment and two came home with 2nd place trophies while the others showed that Mar­co Island is a force to be reckoned with.

The U12 Rec boys nearly repeated their National Championship with only 1 player from last year’s Championship squad. Lead by Josh Wagner, the team went undefeated, with 4 wins and 1 tie, up until the Champi­onship match, where they lost by a goal in the last minute of play to take second place. Members of the squad were Josh Wagner, Matt DeSantis, Andrew Hurdis, Luis Agu­ilera, Julia Wagner and Jonathan Wagner.

The U10 Rec boys also went undefeated to the Championship game. The team was made up of Williams Ramos, Jayden Noel, Jacob Wagner, Mickey Poling, Jose Agu­ilera and Wally Sotelo. In the finals, they matched up with the Coconuts from the Cayman Islands. The battle seesawed to a 6-6 tie after regulation time. However, the Coconuts scored a beautiful goal to win in sudden death overtime.

U10 & U12 Coach Al Wagner respond­ed “We went toe to toe with some good teams. We are obviously disappointed that we didn’t take first but are extremely happy with the way our teams performed!”

The U9 Rec boys showed marked im­provement as they went 3-2 in the tourna­ment and ranked second after pool play. Unfortunately, a key player went down for the quarterfinal match and the boys fell short to the eventual champions by a score of 6-4. Members of the squad were Mitxel Aguilera, Matthew Bartos, Jorge Escobedo, Dorian Galvez, Josh Jordan and Jerry Rojas.

The U8 Rec boys started strong going 3-1 in pool play but pulled a quarterfinal match against the defending champs los­ing their chance to go to the semifinals. The squad was made up of Jonathan Watt, Armando Anaya, Matthew Vergo, Daniel DeSantis, Andrew Lundquist and Zachary Schemel.

The U7 Rec boys were made up of Scot­tie Buss, Dominic Martin, Nicolas Vergo, Anthony Alanis and Jake Watt.

The team drew a tough schedule losing all their games. Their best effort came in their quarterfinal match in the Silver Divi­sion where they lost 4-3 to the Springhill Storm.

The National Championships culmi­nated the 3v3 season for the Marco Island Surge. Club President Joe Bartos stated, “We are really proud of the Surge play­ers that participated, they showed a lot of heart and left it all on the field. We continue to produce very competitive teams which means that the program is working.”. The Marco Island Soccer Club would like to thank all of the coaches that have put many hours into helping our players hone their soccer skills. Special thanks to our Cham­pionship Silver sponsors including Philly Grille, NeNe’s Kitchen and Premiere Plus Realty as well as our Bronze sponsors CJ Noel Insurance, Hoots, Vandy’s 5 Brothers, Rookies and Assist 2 Sell Buyers and Sell­ers Real Estate. For more information about the club, go to www.marcoislandsoccer.org.