7 vs. 7 Futbal Fiesta Soccer Classic ctermed a success

Seven teams participated in Saturday’s inaugural 7 vs. 7 Futbal Fiesta Soccer Classic tournament, featuring a high level of soccer played in near-perfect conditions under sunny skies with samba music blaring at Liberty Christian Academy’s fields.

The event, organized by Fraser Kershaw, a Liberty University online student from Laguna Beach, Calif., who formerly played soccer in Costa Rica and Mexico, raised $900 for Hope International Services, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides medical and education supplies and food for orphans and widows in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador and Vietnam.

“The whole community came together,” said Kershaw, noting all of the teams’ players formed a circle for a prayer before the start of the tournament. “It was all for God. There were representatives of different nations and tribes and colors all in one accord for the purpose of bringing hope for the lesser privileged and the hurting.”

An eclectic group of teams turned out, ranging from alumni, active players and the coach, Andy Ashcroft, at New Covenant School, to alumni and current players at LU, who formed the winning team called Lynchburg Locals.

“Nobody is from Lynchburg, but we all live in Lynchburg,” said Edgar Lutz, a former Flames forward from Brazil who was selected tournament MVP after scoring five goals, many on one-on-one breakaways, in a 6-1 victory over Witness FC in the championship game.

“We created a little more, had more chances and did a better job of finishing.”

Thandizo Sibande, a former teammate of Lutz at LU who later joined the Marine Corps and returned to Lynchburg as a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq, officiated many of the matches.

Sibande, whose wife is from El Salvador, is of Zambian descent and his first name means “God’s help from above.”

He was a godsend to Kershaw in helping to organize the tournament.

“It’s just for fun, to get everybody together again and enjoy ourselves,” Ashcroft said. “It’s a good atmosphere, really low-key.”

But the players went full throttle, demonstrating a high level of technical skills and intensity, with emotions carrying over into some heated physical confrontations in the final. The games, played on half fields about as long as regulation fields are wide, were only 20 minutes in length, but action-packed.

In an early-afternoon clash between teams captained by Will Perez and Ashcroft, Heritage graduate Jimmy Gaston made a valiant effort to try to save a shot by New Covenant graduate Drew Flowers that got over the head of Perez goalkeeper Pellegrino Ringi.

He leaped into the cage in an all-out attempt to bicycle kick the ball out of the net, landing flat on his back with his cleats in the netting.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Gaston said later. “I tried.”

Spencer Siggins, who plays for Staunton River High, put Perez on top 3-2 by sneaking a tough-angled shot from the right endline inside the left post and later put the game away by finishing a corner-kick cross from Perez with a perfectly timed header into the upper left corner of the net.

In their morning meeting with Witness FC, Lynchburg Locals forward Austin Hinkson scored the go-ahead goal from deep in the right side of the box off the left post before Lutz closed the scoring with a left-footed strike from point-blank range that got past goalkeeper Scott Zaring.

“There’s more shooting, definitely,” Hinkson, an LU graduate, said of the 7 vs. 7 short-field format.

“There’s no time to transition. It’s more like counter-attack, counter-attack. You see who’s open and try to finish. Unless you’re ahead, then you knock it around and play keep-away.”

“It was a good game,” added Witness FC captain Alan Biggio, a former player at Longwood University. “We just didn’t finish. I think we’ll see them again in the final.”

“We need some subs,” added Zaring, noting the team started with the minimum seven players.

Witness FC held on to beat a team called No Subs 2-1 in the first round of losers’ bracket play, with Zaring making a save and sending a quick outlet up to former Jefferson Forest teammate Timothy Bullock, a rising sophomore at LU. The left-footed striker dribbled quickly up the left sideline and shot adroitly toward the right netting for a 1-0 lead.

LCA graduate Abass Ayembillah, bound for the University of Texas-Brownsville, later saved the ball on the left endline and sent a crossing pass to former Liberty High standout Montana Gibson for a one-timed score and 2-0 lead before Anthony Arias followed his own shot, blocked by Zaring, and blasted the rebound upper-90 from the left side for the final score.

With the addition of Richard Nyarko, a teammate of Ayembillah’s at LCA, Witness FC went on to win its next two games in the losers’ bracket to advance to the final, but didn’t have much left for the well-rested Lynchburg Locals, who stayed in the winner’s bracket, finishing 4-0.