The Springfield VT Soccer Club, U-12 Girls Soccer Team, The Pouncing Puma's made history over Memorial Day Weekend, winning the First ever U-12 Girls Tournament for the Springfield VT Soccer club. The Puma's won all 4 games over the weekend and clinched the Championship with a total tournament 19 goals scored. The team is made up of players from Springfield, Weathersfield, Chester & Ludlow. The team is coached by Head Coach Bruce Schmidt with Jeff Locke & Mike Garaffa Assistant Coaches. The Rutland County Soccer Tournament is held every Memorial Day Weekend and has over 40 teams playing in several age groups. The U-12 bracket consisted of teams from Rutland County, Clarendon, Rutland Recreation, Mad River Soccer (Vermont), Berkshire Soccer club, (MA) & Plattsburgh Soccer club (NY).
Pictured above is Sara Lock battling for the ball vs Mill River United.
"These girls are a great group of athletes who have really come together to play as one" said Coach Schmidt after the 4th victory. "I am so proud of how they play great soccer on the field and enjoy each other off the field". "Many of these girls didn't even know each other when we started in December, they have come so far".
In Game #1, they faced a tough Mad River Soccer Club team. The Puma's were able to come out on the winning end with a 5-2 victory with goals scored by Abby Graffa, Sarah Rumrill & Kendra Dana. The 2nd game saw them facing the Mill River United team and the offense was really working. The final score was 8-0 with goals scored by Kendra Dana (2) assists from Blakely Gilmore & Abigail Schmidt. Also scoring Sarah Rumrill (3) all unassisted, Kateri Collins (2) assist Blakely Gilmore, & Meghan Thomas- Unassited.
On Sunday, the team arrived a little more tired and faced the Rutland Wildcats. It took the first half for the Puma's to get into the groove, but after allowing 2 goals by the Wildcats, the team stormed back to take a 4-2 victory. Goals were scored by Sarah Rumrill (2) assist Abigail Schmidt & Blakely Gilmore. Also scoring was Abigail Schmidt Assist Sarah Rumrill & Blakely Gilmore Assist Sarah Rumrill.
The 2nd game on Sunday turned into a real barn burner. The Pumas faced the Rutland County Soccer Team in their final tournament game. The team had been beaten by Rutland County 3 times during the indoor and outdoor season and were really ready to avenge those losses. The game was hard fought for the entire 50 minutes. The first goal was scored by Rutland, but the Puma's roared back 30 seconds later and the equalizer was scored by Sarah Rumrill with an assist from Kendra Dana. Sarah Rumrill scored the go-ahead goal in the second half with an assist from Abigail Schmidt. "We scored a lot of goals, but this was a real team effort" said coach Schmidt. "We would not have won the games we did without the great goalkeeping from Hannah Livingston and Meghan Thomas, as well as the defensive play from Sara Locke & Kateri Collins." He said. He also commented on the midfield play of Abby Graffa & Kylie Bellows. "All these girls will play any position wherever and whenever you ask them. You don't always see that in soccer players".
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