Springfield U14 Girls Lightning Score Big

Gaudineer students will be seeing orange today.

Several Gaudineer girls will be wearing orange jerseys at Gaudineer Middle School to celebrate winning the Spring 2011 ICYSL (Inter-County Youth Soccer League) U14 Girls' championship.

The Springfield Lightning beat Scotch Plains, 2-1, Saturday night at Finals Fest at Scotch Plains High School. Amanda Mezzo's back-heel goal early in the second half broke a 1-1 tie and proved to be the game-winner. Angela Arpino's goal on a penalty kick had given Springfield a 1-0 lead just three minutes into the game. Samantha Santucci made four clutch saves in goal for Springfield.

Two weeks ago, the team beat Summit, 3-1, in the quarterfinals; last week they upset Plainfield, 3-1, in the semis. Our final record was 6-1-3.

The victory brought the team up to two championships (plus a 2nd place finish and a 3rd place finish) over the last four seasons, and a 32-4-6 record over that time.

The roster consisted of Stephanie Cabrera and Jessica Correia (the eighth-graders); Marissa Chusid, Victoria Salguero, Samantha Santucci, Amy McLaughlin, Angela Arpino, Ashley Arias, Jordyn Fekete, Juliana Berardinelli, Olivia Resnick, Alyssa Wendolowski, Danielle Doren and Megan Carrie (the seventh-graders), Amanda Mezzo, Emely Arias and Ariana Sista (the sixth-graders). Elio Arpino and Rick Resnick are the coaches.