A young redhead blew hard one last time into her noise-maker vuvuzela, marking the end of the Soccer by the Bay Tournament in San Mateo on Aug. 21 and 22. When the echo of the horn had faded, her brother’s Scotts Valley-San Lorenzo Valley Thunder under-13 boys travel soccer team had defeated Livermore, 2-0, to claim third place in the competition that featured teams from all over California.
The Thunder had the second best tournament record in their division, with three wins and a loss. Their only defeat was to the Sunnyvale team, which placed first.
On the offensive side, the Thunder was led by speedy forward Daniel Garcia-Palleras, who scored three goals, followed by Max Bäuerle, Noah Byrd and Mitchell Kamau, each with one goal for the tournament.
The Thunder shut out their last two opponents with an aggressive midfield and defense, led by Jacob Wiechmann, Eric Beraut, Raul Garcia-Palleras, Drew Collishaw, Ryan Edwards and goalkeeper A.J. Collishaw.
Coach Ona Stewart prepared the boys well for a grueling tournament that began at 7 a.m. and ended at 6:30 p.m. on the final day. Though the Thunder team has been together for four years, big contributions were made by new players Alex Burnett, Kyle Giguiere, Robert Riemer and A.J. Streller.
The Thunder’s fall season starts in mid-September. More photographs from the game and background on team can be found at www.svslv-thunder.com.
“The club is extremely proud of the Thunder’s performance in the Soccer by the Bay Tournament,” said Michael Oglesby, president of the Scotts Valley-San Lorenzo Valley Soccer Club. “They are a fine group of young men and represented our club and our soccer community well in this very competitive tournament, which each year includes hundreds of the best teams from around California.”
