The Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy teams are back into the swing of their schedule with the U.S. Soccer Development Academy after a pair of weekend matches each at the club’s home field in Casa Grande, Arizona. The U-18s went 2-0, outscoring Juventus Sport Club and the San Jose Earthquakes 11-0 while the U-16s split 1-0 results against those same teams.
On Saturday, the U-18s got out to a 1-0 lead over Juventus in the fourth minute on a goal from Jose Hernandez and never looked back. By halftime, they had raced to a 5-0 lead with goals from five different players, then coasted to an 8-0 victory when Brooks Lennon added to his first-half goal with two more in the second half and Alexander Knox made it six different scorers for RSL-AZ. Lennon completed the hat trick with a 90th minute score, giving him 13 goals in 15 matches this season.
In their second match of the weekend on Sunday, the U-18s got an 11th-minute goal from Amar Sejdic – his second of the weekend – and then had a steady performance to post a 3-0 win over San Jose. In total, seven different players scored in the two matches for RSL-AZ, who improved to 14-1-3 on the season, holding a firm grasp on the top spot in the Southwest Division.
The U-16s had a strong defensive performance to shutout Juventus on Saturday, using a second-half goal from Efren Estrada to post the 1-0 victory. However, the second match on Sunday saw an end to their five-game unbeaten streak in a 1-0 defeat to the Earthquakes.
RSL-AZ’s U-16s are now third in the Southwest Division at 8-5-5.
Both teams will host Real So Cal in their next matches on Saturday.
