Mustangs Finish Productive Winter, Promising Spring Season Starts Sunday

The Tarrytown Mustangs age 12-travel soccer team has now been playing together for four years. As established routine the girls have spent the winter with indoor training to get an edge on the competition. Four years ago Tarrytown was one of the top 50 travel teams in Westchester. Sunday they enter division two play as a top 10 team. Besides having over 60 hours of practice sessions this winter used to improve their ball skills, passing, and decision making; the girls also played in two tournaments and an elite winter league. As a “travel” team the Mustangs represent one local town. In the league and tournaments that they participated in they faced 18 teams: Seven premiere, seven division one, and 4 regular travel teams. These teams were from Connecticut, New York City, and Westchester. Premiere teams are all-star teams made up of top players from several towns with professional coaching. The Mustangs were only able to get one win and one tie against those teams but played competitive in most matches. Against the top division travel teams (considered top 5 in their county) the Mustangs were more competitive but only managed two ties and some very exciting close losses. Against teams considered on their level, the Mustangs went undefeated with an average score of 7-1.

Individually the girls were very productive. Forward Talia Fante had a monster winter leading the team in both goals (19) and assists (9). Maya Weitzen who was dividing time with her theater career was second in goals (7) and tied for third with assists (5). Julia Costa who was splitting time with volleyball was tied for third in both goals (6) and assists (5). Maddy Navin who led the defense managed to tie for third in goals (6), added 2 assists, all while nursing an injured ankle. Britany Alban had a great winter playing midfield and keeper, scoring 5 goals, and placing second in assists with 7. When Sophie Sylves-Berry wasn’t on the slopes or on stage, she was tearing up the soccer field scoring 5 goals and earning 1 assist. Annie Dineen developed into a lock down man-to-man defender having a great winter and even managed a goal and an assist. Lily Rodriguez played both offense and defense, learned to cover the competition’s best player, and scored 2 goals with 2 assists. Carolina Lopez had the lion share of time as keeper, improving her skills and preparing for the spring. When she wasn’t in goal, the lefty was terrorizing the competition with 2 goals of her own. Emma Clarke was dividing time with basketball, but managed to continue to master her all-purpose skills at offense, defense, and midfield. Sam Livingston earned an assist but missed most of the season due to skiing.

The new spring season begins this Sunday April 12th and the girls are eager to get outside. In each of the past years the girls have shown significant improvement after winter training and they hope this year will be no different. They have moved up to division 2 after going undefeated in division 3 and expect the competition to be fierce. Their first game will be on the road in Riverdale against the West Side Red Bulls.