Mt. Olive Cup: U16 Roundup

The U16 bracket of the Mt. Olive Cup featured some highly contested action, leading to a 2-1 victory win the final for Black River Athletics 2009 B over Monmouth United's 2009 Premier team. United had to beat Jersey Knights SC 2009 in penalties after 0-0 in full time. Meanwhile, United's 2009 Blue team only made it to the consolation game despite having quite a few impressive dribblers. Hackettstown Strikers had many players physically ahead of the competition, but were unable to convert their day one success into a semi-final triumph over eventual champions Black River Athletics 2009 B.    Brandon Wehrenberg is an attacking midfielder with elite pace for his age, exploding forward on his runs to stretch the defense up the middle channel. He is an incisive passer, creating for others often on the counter with ground crosses that create notable danger. Although quite a technical dribbler, his decision making is too slow at times, leading to hum succumbing to pressure centrally. When finishing, he strikes with great power, getting a few shots off in transition and a goal against Jersey Knights.     Playing up an age group, the incoming freshman was the Strikers' main man in goal. He kept a clean sheet vs. Jersey Knights and only allowed one goal vs. Monmouth United Blue. despite his stature he is athletic enough to cover lots of ground in his box. He puts notable distance on his punts with is right foot and is accurate enough to consistently set up aerial duels. He was decisive making saves at his near posts and tracking long distance shots, but he must improve his handling as he has a tendency to spill it back into play or not catch it cleanly.     Gabe Torres caught my eye on day one as a fullback, with a lean muscular frame and strength into defensive duels along the boundary. Being wide in possession did not suit his dribbling abilities well and I could see why on day two. Then, his role changed to the captain and destroyer in holding midfield. There his dueling ability starred, not shying away from contact and putting in timely stand tackles to break up attacks, hardly ever getting dribbled past even if lunging in. In addition, he is quite pacy when carrying forward and that translates on his recovery runs, allowing him to make last ditch tackles. Defensively, Torres is ahead of his years. On the ball, he must improve his overall technique and decision making, as he plays lots of ambitious balls through up the middle that just lack the weight for his target's to get onto.     A shifty dribbler and midfield controller, Phoenix Sharaway is a confident ball carrier that has finishing chops, too, especially when striking from distance. He peppered in very well struck shots from outside the box, keeping them on target with power to force saves that spilled for rebounds at times and eventually led to a beautiful goal curled into the far post. He has top awareness feeling pressure from all angles on his midfield carries, allowing him to stop on the dime to hold up or even shrug off physical duels due to both being stronger than the opposition and having such a controlled dribble. His passing range is also excellent, able to simultaneously spread play wide and send in key passes. Sharaway is willing into defensive duels due to his tendency to initiate play and his strength. Though not great at finishing tackles, the initiative he shows into them is encouraging as that is his mentality on the attack, too. His profile is certainly one with potential to take him past the NCAA Division I level.     Noah Cesareo stood out with his crafty dribbler up midfield on his carries, combining dribbling control with shiftiness to glide past defenders. A dribble move he liked to pull off that was successful was his spin that often freed him up. From there, Cesareo was able to break lines, and was not even too ambitious in his attempts, sending his targets in behind more than a few times. With a wiry frame, he will have to fill it out more to become press resistant and find further consistency on his progressive caries.     Quan Tran is a center back quite comfortable in possession in the opposition half. The moment that first caught my eye was when he dribbled past a 1v1 in the final third along the enplane into a back post creation attempt. As I watched further, he did not just impress in possession with his precise long switches of play through the air, Tran impressed with his defensive positioning, too. On ball, he had powerful strides to run down through balls before his marker could get to them, utilizing his stocky frame to box them off ball. From there, his strength in possession showed, able to turn them for space despite dribbling backward. With his stature and physicality, he was also dominant aerially, clearing with his head a couple times. There was also a moment where he was given a lot of space to step into an ill-advised long distance shot, and although it missed wide, he struck it with notable power.

The U16 bracket of the Mt. Olive Cup featured some highly contested action, leading to a 2-1 victory win the final for Black River Athletics 2009 B over Monmouth United's 2009 Premier team. United had to beat Jersey Knights SC 2009 in penalties after 0-0 in full time. Meanwhile, United's 2009 Blue team only made it to the consolation game despite having quite a few impressive dribblers. Hackettstown Strikers had many players physically ahead of the competition, but were unable to convert their day one success into a semi-final triumph over eventual champions Black River Athletics 2009 B.