Eastside Club wears the National crown

By David Ball

The Gresham Outlook, Jul 28, 2010, Updated Jul 28, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

Eastside United's Ricardo Carillo shows off his quick feet.

File photo

Eastside United gained a measure of revenge and made history with a 1-0 win over Shattuck, Minn., in the 18U National Finals on Sunday, July 25, in Overland Park, Kansas.

The Eastside Club became only the second Oregon club to win a national youth title, the only other coming in 1994, by beating a Shattuck squad that they had lost to 1-0 to start the tournament a few days earlier.

Eastside scored the game’s only goal in the 30th minute when Steven Evans booted a long pass through the midfield where Mikhail Doholis ran onto it near the top of the 18-yard box. He got off a shot just before the goalie crashed into his knees, injuring Doholis enough to force him to the sideline for the rest of the match.

“He took a hard lick and really sacrificed himself to score that goal,” Eastside co-coach Bill Bateman said.

The physical play continued throughout the 90 minutes with 27 fouls being whistled and five yellow cards being issued. But no more goals would be scored.

“It was a great match – a game of guts,” Bateman said.

Shattuck had a couple chances in the second half, but goalie Ryan Harding made a kick save on one attempt from point-blank range. In the closing minutes of the game,

Shattuck sent a shot off the side post. The team’s final chance came on a dangerous throw-in deep in Eastside’s end during stoppage time, but Shattuck couldn’t mount a shot on goal.

“I was just thinking ‘Man, we’ve made it this far – it can’t happen now’,” Eastside coach Bill Bateman said.

Finally, the whistle blew and Eastside could celebrate.

“It’s been quite the run with this group,” Bateman said. “There are a lot of powerful teams in Region Four, so there were some expectations put on us coming in here.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit