Century West girls soccer celebrates national championship

The Century West U15 girls soccer team put it all together throughout the spring and into summer and brought home the championship trophy from the U.S. Youth Soccer National Presidents Cup tournament last month in Des Moines, Iowa.

“It just came down to a total commitment from the group,” coach Chris Lantzy said. “We did have some players who stood out at different times in games, but even those players’ main concern was with what the group did. They are more interested in that team win than individual accolades.”

Lantzy said part of the motivation for this season’s run stemmed from a trip to nationals as U13 two years ago.

“We were a small fish in a big pond,” he said.

“We went 1-3 there and were a little overmatched in some of the games. Last year, we qualified for Presidents Cup regionals, but the regional and national tournaments were canceled because of covid. They were disappointed last year because they really wanted to make another run at it. When they got the chance this year, the motivation and experience of being there before really paid off.”

Century West went 2-1 in pool play and earned a spot in the championship game where it topped Utah’s League 30 Metasport FC, 1-0, to win the championship.

This was the first PA West team, boys or girls, to win a Presidents Cup national title.

The journey to nationals began in March as Century West won the PA West Presidents Cup title to advance to the Eastern Regional in June in Charleston, W.Va.

At regionals, which covers 13 states from Maine to Virginia, the team went 5-0 and defeated teams from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

Century West outscored its regional opponents 19-1, giving up the only goal of the tournament in the championship game.

“We did have a bit of a favorable draw until we got to the semifinals,” Lantzy said.

“That allowed us to rotate players in a little more and keep them rested. We learned a lot from the last time. We had the luxury to track player minutes in group play. With five games in five days, we were able to keep our legs a little better.”

Lantzy also credited the defense, including goalkeeper Serayah Leech, for putting up brick walls all throughout the series of tournaments. With the total of 13 games of the Presidents Cup at all three levels (state, regionals and nationals), we gave up just four goals total, and only one was from the run of play. The other three were penalty kicks.”

The players, all rising high school freshmen or sophomores, represent Beaver, Moon, Hopewell, Mt. Lebanon, Freedom, West Allegheny, Canon-McMillan, Riverside and Oak Glen, W.Va., high schools.

“This is a really tight group, but I know they also are very competitive, and they will try to go and kick the crap out of each other during the high school season,” Lantzy said.

“It’s good-natured bragging rights.”