The Martha’s Vineyard United youth soccer teams entered the fourth weekend of spring travel team play in the South Coast Soccer League, with five of the nine local teams in action at Veterans Park.
Saturday afternoon, the Under-13 Girls played to a 0-0 tie with Berkley Athletic to remain unbeaten with two wins and two draws, and the U14 Girls improved to 2-1 with a convincing 3-0 win over Yarmouth-Dennis.
The U12 Girls started off a Sunday tripleheader on the home pitch, and earned a hard-fought 3-2 win over Sandwich, improving to 3-1. Ava Townes scored for United in the first half, and added a second goal early in the second, splitting the Sandwich defense and lifting the ball into the top left corner. Three minutes later, Laina Dubin took a sure feed from Leah Thomson, dribbled around two defenders, and drilled a shot inside the right post from a sharp angle to make it 3-0. Sandwich fought back with two goals in the final 20 minutes, but couldn’t grab the equalizer. Winning keeper Zoe Higgins made several big saves in the MVU net, and Caroline Little had a strong match on the wings.
“They’ve really been a fun team to coach. They’re getting better every time,” Coach Nell Coogan said after the match.
In the second match of the day, Jack Carbon scored with one minute remaining as MVU forged a 4-4 draw with unbeaten Seekonk Black Goose in a thrilling U17 Boys contest.
The match was a tale of two halves, as each side dominated when playing with the strong wind at its back.
MV United scored three in the first half, and Seekonk roared back with four in the second before Carbon notched the tying goal to give the hosts a share of the points.
Shaun Rogers-Thomas put United in front 10 minutes into the match, and added another goal in short order, bursting through the Seekonk defense and putting the ball through the keeper’s legs. Simon Hammarlund closed out the first half in style, curling a 25-yarder into the right corner after collecting a great pass from Kaden Mericer.
The United U20 Men closed out the busy afternoon by winning their season opener over Yarmouth-Dennis, 3-0.
Arthur Santos da Silva scored two goals three minutes apart early in the first half, and Diogo Goncalves added another in the 28th minute. In a decision made between the coaches and referees, the match was called at halftime due to Yarmouth-Dennis sustaining two injuries. Y-D started the match with 11 available players and no substitutes, and would have been down to nine for the remainder of the contest.