“Strikers” Soccer Team Wins Florida’s 25th Anniversary Sunshine State Games
The ScoringSoccer.com “Strikers” captured the First Place championship trophy and Gold Medals in the 25th Florida Sunshine State Games men's open soccer competition. The games where held in Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, on the weekend of June 18th through the 20th.
Tallahassee, FL (PRWEB) June 24, 2004 -- The ScoringSoccer.com “Strikers”
captured the First Place championship trophy and Gold Medals in the 25th Florida
Sunshine State Games men's open soccer competition. The games where held in
Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, on the weekend of June 18th through the
20th.
ScoringSoccer.com’s “Strikers” won all three of their games and
remained undefeated throughout the tournament.
The “Strikers” dominated
in the first match, scoring 8 goals over the Clearwater Internationals: final
score 8 – 2. The team’s next match resulted in a hard-fought 3 – 2 victory over
the Gainesville Immortals. In their final match against the Gainesville
Gangsters for the championship, the teams were tied 2 – 2 at the end of
regulation time. The overtime win was decided in the Strikers’ favor when
Eduardo Manuel Lopéz scored the winning goal in the 17th minute of the “golden
goal” overtime period.
ScoringSoccer’s “Strikers” coach Mario Lillo
declared that his choice for MVP honors go to goalkeeper, Jose Japhet Irizarry,
and #10 Jaime Calvillo – and all the other hard-working under-16 players on the
team.
The Sunshine State Games is Florida's own Olympic-style sports
festival created for amateur athletes of all ages and skill levels. The ultimate
goal of the Games is to provide an opportunity and incentive for all amateur
athletes in the State of Florida to develop their physical talents and
competitive abilities, and has offered a level of competition that has been
instrumental in developing many of Florida's champions.
The Sunshine
State Games are part of the National Congress of State Games that holds
competitions in over 40 states. This year’s 25th Anniversary of the Summer
Games, held in Tallahassee June 16-20, 2004, featured many highly skilled soccer
teams from around the state engaged in hard-fought matches throughout the
weekend.
One of the premiere teams in the competition was the
ScoringSystem “Strikers” representing ScoringSoccer.com. These traveling
ambassadors are out to show the soccer world how players from all over North and
South America can work together on and off the field. These adult open team
players are all registered with ScoringSoccer.com and carry ScoringSystem photo
ID cards, which makes it easy for the tournament and match officials to identify
and keep track of players during the games.
Check out the “Strikers” web
page on the ScoringSoccer.com web site at:
http://www.scoringsoccer.com/index.cfm?pageaction=TeamPageSearchView&TeamID=%206&SearchFlag=TeamSearchResults
The
team’s coach Mario Lillo, a native of Santiago, Chile, began playing soccer at
age 7 for the Goodyear Soccer School in Santiago. At age 14 he started playing
for the University of Chile Soccer Club and began playing professionally at age
16. After moving to the US and New York with his family at age 17, he was soon
recognized and named as the best High School soccer player in the state of New
York.
He participated in the Empire State Games, preliminaries to go to
the Olympics, playing for the New York Eagle’s professional Soccer Team. In 1985
he returned to Chile and played professionally for the Union Española Soccer
Club in Santiago. In 1995, Coach Lillo became a professional player for the
Puerto Viejo Soccer Club of Ecuador. During this time he met and became close
friends with Carlos Luis Morales, considered to be Ecuador’s best goalkeeper of
all time.
In addition to his position as head coach for the “Strikers,”
Coach Lillo spends his time training youths in the game of soccer at his academy
located outside of Ocala, Florida in the community of Marion Oaks. He was
recently honored with an award for “Best Coach of the Year in the State of
Florida,” a distinction given to him by the Ocala Honors Association.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/6/prweb136082.htm