Four teams advance in DFS

Nine enthusiastic teams ran wild on the American Memorial Park and Garapan Elementary School pitches over the weekend but only four advanced to next month’s finals of the DFS Galleria Boys’ All- School Soccer Tournament.

Whispering Palms School, William S. Reyes Elementary, Koblerville Elementary, and Grace Christian Academy all earned bids to the finals after dispatching the competition at the parks.

The kids from Koblerville and GCA advanced to the finals out of Group A against the likes of Dan Dan Elementary and Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary, as each team went 1-0-2 in the preliminary round of action.

The KES kickers showed up to the AMP with a small army of players draped in green and gold, and scored their only victory over Dan Dan with a close 2-1 contest in the rain. Koblerville tied GCA and GTC in scoreless matches to close out the day, and GCA tied Dan Dan after opening the tournament with a 1-0 win over GTC.

Five schools turned out for the Group B action Garapan Elementary at the same time as

William S. Reyes Elementary, Whispering Palms School, Kagman Elementary School, San Vicente Elementary School, and Garapan Elementary School got their kicks down the street.

Just like Group A, one private school and one public school advance to the final round as the William S. Reyes and Whispering Palms School teams were a step ahead of the competition on Saturday.

The kids from the hill went 3-1 and outscored their counterparts 6-2 on the day, but the two goals against came in a 2-0 loss to WSR in their finals game. Three of their goals came from R.J. Knecht in a 4-0 win over Kagman, but he wasn’t the high scorer of the day.

That title went to WSR’s Omar Hossain, who found the back of the net five times to lead his team to a 2-1-1 record on the day. Hossain and company outscored their opponents 6-1, but got started off on the wrong foot.

After opening with a 1-0 loss to the Garapan squad on their home turf, WSR followed with back-to-back wins against Kagman Elementary (4-0) and WPS (2-0) before settling for a 0-0 tie with the Canaries of San Vicente.

The Top 4 teams return to the GES pitch on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 8am when WPS, and WSR compete for the DFS Galleria Boys’ All- School Championship Soccer Tournament while the girls get their chance to shine this weekend on Saturday, Oct. 28, at GES and the AMP during the DFS Galleria Girls’ All- School Preliminary Soccer Tournaments starting at 8am.

Organizers of the tournament recognized the efforts Dean Tenorio and Sue Knecht of the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association and all of the volunteer referees as Paul Baron, Perry Lo, Mark McDonald, Solomon Gazi, Pat Coleman, Vince Stravino, and Layla Qudsi officiated the games free of charge.