Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia continued its U16 MRL Premier I Division play on Monday night with a great result over NSA who on Sunday were crowned IYSA State Cup Champions.

The game started off with a majority of the play on Brasilia’s defensive half of the field. There were many tough battles occurring all over the field and as the game started to settle down Brasilia started to gain more possession. The half ended with a 0-0 tie after most of the game was being played in the middle third of the field.

Coming out in the second half Brasilia started to keep the ball more and possession started to move deeper into NSA’s half of the field. As a result, the first goal came from a great build up that had Makenna Schoolman playing a perfect ball wide in behind the NSA defense where her pass found Kerry Abello (Cruziero). Kerry made a fantastic first touch and got behind her defender to serve a driven ball toward the near post that was met with a perfectly timed run by Jasmine Ruiz who buried her shot past the keeper for the eventual game-winner.

Brasilia continued to have more possession and the second goal started with a ball that Kerry Abello flicked to Jasmine Ruiz who in turn laid it off to Veda Tappin. Veda first-timed her shot from about 30 yards out over the outstretched hands of the goal keeper for the all-important insurance goal.

This was a great team effort and the back line did a great job shutting down a very explosive team. We would like to recognize the efforts of Bailee Witt (Cruziero), Nicole Mondi, Jade Eriksen-Russo, Emmerson Fuller, and Callie Vitro for securing the shutout.
Next up for Brasilia is another MRL match on Sunday October 26th at PlayUSA versus Libertyville FC 1974 (IL).