VANCOUVER, BC - The sun may have been shining over Vancouver but it was raining goals at UBC's Varsity Field as both Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-18 and U-16 Residency sides won convincingly against Santa Cruz Breakers with three different players claiming hat-tricks on Sunday.
An early goal got the ball rolling for the U-18s who finished with an 8-0 victory which was then followed up with the U-16s claiming a 5-0 win.
The teams can now enjoy a two week break before resuming their United States Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) campaigns with matches against San Jose Earthquakes and Cal Odyssey on May 18 and 19.
U-18
In Saturday's match, the U-18s dropped points for the first time since March 2 and the team responded to the setback in style by scoring eight unanswered goals against Santa Cruz Breakers.
They took the lead in the first minute when Brody Huitema scored with an effort from the edge of the area.
Fellow striker Spencer DeBoice was the next to get his name on the scoresheet, first on 18 minutes when he met a cross from Yassin Essa with a composed volley and then with an almost carbon copy of his first goal two minutes later.
Huitema scored with a tap in from a corner on 35 minutes before Essa missed a penalty on 39 minutes as the score remained 4-0 to Whitecaps FC going into the break.
It was Huitema who bagged the first hat-trick of the day as he raced onto a through ball from Mitch Piraux before producing the finish for the team's fifth goal.
Quinton Duncan was the next to get his name on the scoresheet as the defender rose highest to head in a free kick on 68 minutes.
Vancouver kept pushing and got a further two goals late in the game with Deboice completing his hat-trick on 85 minutes with a powerful shot from a tight angle before Essa completed the rout two minutes later. The striker atoned for his earlier penalty miss by embarking on a run from midfield into the area before slotting home the team's eighth.
Coach Gordon Forrest was delighted with the performance from the players after picking themselves up from a tough match the day before.
"The pleasing thing from our point of view is that they keep pushing, they keep going forward and they keep trying to score. They've been ruthless in the game," commented Forrest. "Another pleasing thing from today is that they've done a lot of learning in some aspects from what we discussed after the game on Saturday. It's great to see the players taking those things on board and then coming back mentally prepared for the Sunday game."
Whitecaps FC lineup:
Nolan Wirth; Quinton Duncan, Jackson Farmer, Alex Comsia, Sam Adekugbe (Matthew van der Eyden 58'); Mitch Piraux (Liam Elbourne 45' (Nicholas Prasad 67')), Carlos Marquez, Marco Bustos; Yassin Essa, Brody Huitema, Spencer DeBoice
U-16
Craig Dalrymple's U-16s put in a dominant performance as they came up against an equally youthful Santa Cruz Breakers side, winning 5-0.
Despite early pressure it took Vancouver until the 30th minute to get the opener as Dario Zanatta got on the end of a through ball and produced a good finish.
Just after the halftime break, Zanatta made it 2-0 when he found space in the area and side-footed the ball past the Santa Cruz Breakers 'keeper.
On 57 minutes Zanatta completed his hat-trick with another cool finish as he placed his effort under the onrushing goalkeeper.
With Vancouver in control, three substitutes combined for the fourth goal in the 70th minute as David Norman won the ball in midfield and laid it off to John Kasper. Kasper played a diagonal ball over to Terran Campbell who finished with a powerful strike on his weaker foot.
Whitecaps FC got a deserved fifth on 75 minutes as Andy Xu played the ball to Daniel Sagno just outside the box and the substitute struck a well-placed first time effort that beat the keeper to make the final score 5-0.
Coach Dalrymple was pleased with the quality that his side displayed as they controlled the match.
"Today was the first game that they played where we could look across at the opponents and match up age wise and we always knew that when that happened our quality would come through," Dalrymple said. "It was a comfortable game for the boys. I think they've started to recognize all the positives in the performances instead of just focusing on results because there were a lot of positives yesterday and we built on that today."
Whitecaps FC lineup:
Marco Carducci (Aidan Aylward 70'); Kadin Chung, Matthew Baldisimo, Vaggeli Boucas, Eric de Graaf; Jordan Haynes (John Kasper 65'), Jeevin Kang (Matteo Bordignon 50'), Thomas Gardner (David Norman 55'); Dario Zanatta (Terran Campbell 60'), Joshua Cuthbert (Daniel Sagno 45'), Andy Xu
