By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
June 12, 2024-With 12 players returning from the team that made it to the national championship game last year, Middle Country SBMC outlasted DUSC HS Select, 2-1, in overtime to win the Girls-Under-19 State Open Cup championship on June 2 at Stringham Park in LaGrange.
In 2023, another Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) squad, Patriots FC, won the national championship game over Middle Country as that match featured two teams from Eastern New York.
Evangeline Perdomo scored in the first minute for Middle Country in the 2024 state final and Brielle Zink scored the game-winner in overtime.
“We scored at the start of the match but it wound up being a tight game and tough to play in this heat,” explained Middle Country coach Mike Timo.
The cup’s namesake, Barbara Rodriguez, is a Northport resident who volunteered as Eastern New York’s State Cup Chairperson for 23 years from 1992 to 2014.
DUSC brought the Rocco Amoroso Sportsmanship Award back to Manhattan. Amoroso, a US Soccer Life Member who died in 2016, started the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) Sportsmanship Program in 1980 and it spread to Eastern New York, nationally and then to China and Ireland, making soccer games kinder and gentler in the process.
With over 100,000 youth soccer players––both boys and girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 10 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Children With Special Needs. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and US Youth Soccer. For more information, please log onto http://www.enysoccer.com/