Whitecaps FC Residency teams came away unbeaten in their matches against Nomads SC at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington on Sunday.
The U-18s sealed an impressive weekend with a 4-0 victory against Nomads whilst the U-16s came from behind to draw 1-1.
Both teams have a fortnight break before grudge matches with Seattle Sounders FC on March 30 at Simon Fraser University.
U-18s
After routing San Diego Surf 5-1 on Saturday, Whitecaps FC (12W-6L-2D) maintained their impressive form against Nomads with another dominant victory.
With 13 minutes on the clock, Marco Bustos opened the scoring with a fine solo effort as he made a run for the box and produced a powerful shot to beat the goalkeeper from just inside the area.
Whitecaps FC doubled their lead before halftime as Bustos turned provider, playing the ball in for Mitch Piraux to finish expertly on 39 minutes.
The third goal came from a goalmouth scramble in the Nomads area on 70 minutes with Bustos finding himself in the right place to bury the ball.
Star performer Bustos then claimed his second assist of the match two minutes later as he delivered a ball to the far post for substitute Jordan Haynes to finish from a tight angle.
Coach Gordon Forrest emphasized that despite achieving two convincing wins, there is always room for development.
"There's always things that we can improve on and the good thing for me is that there's little things in the game, in both games, where the players know and feel that they could've done better," commented Forrest.
"We've got high standards at training and high standards in the game so even though we've come away with positive results in terms of the performance there's always things we want to improve on. But credit to the boys this weekend, they have been quite convincing this weekend and they've worked really hard in both games which is a pleasing thing as well."
Whitecaps FC U-18 lineup:
Sean Melvin; Matthew van der Eyden (Quinton Duncan 46'), Jackson Farmer, Nicholas Prasad (Alexander Comsia 46'), Sam Adekugbe; Mitch Piraux (Kianz Froese 46'), Marco Bustos, Liam Elbourne (Sebastian Cabrera 46'); Yassin Essa, Titouan Chopin (Matthew Chow 46'), Spencer Deboice (Jordan Haynes 65')
U-16s
After a disappointing first half performance in Saturday's game, Whitecaps FC (6W-11L-3D) showed their mettle by coming from behind to claim a draw against Nomads SC.
The first half was a marked improvement on the team's previous performance, although with chances at a premium the sides went in goalless at halftime.
With Nomads happy to sit back and soak up pressure, Whitecaps FC were seeing a lot of possession, but on 68 minutes they lost the ball in midfield and Nomads launched a counter-attack from which they scored.
The 'Caps rallied and got a deserved equalizer on 75 minutes as a cross was played into the box to Evan Libke with the defender smashing the ball in to level the scores.
There was almost a winner three minutes later as substitute Francesco Saporito collected the ball and let fly with a shot from 25 yards which cannoned back off the crossbar as the scores remained at 1-1 until the final whistle.
Coach Craig Dalrymple was happy with the improvement in performance and was also pleased with the character his side showed.
"As a whole, as a group it was much better, the character was much better, the overall approach and application to the game from a mental side of things was much better and that enabled them to perform at a higher level," Dalrymple said.
"It's part of the development of young players. Sometimes it all clicks for them and their state of mind is where it needs to be and the next day they're a different person, a different player. That's normal for players this young but if they can learn to be more consistent with their focus and mentality at a young age then that will bode them well for the future."
Whitecaps U-16 lineup:
William Diaz; Matteo Bordignon, Eric De Graaf, Vagelli Boucas (Evan Libke 65'), A.J. Lopez (Erik Morden 60'); Jeevin Kang, David Norman (Thomas Gardner 40'); Dario Zanatta (Francesco Saporito 60'); Joshua Cuthbert (Terran Campbell 40'), Aymar Sigue, Daniel Sagno
