Vipers repeat at regionals

The FC Bucks Vipers repeated recently as Region I champions and are hence headed back to nationals which kick off July 21 in Massachusetts.

By Steve Sherman
Sports Editor
Capturing a regional championship takes talent, hard work and good fortune. The task of taking same in back-to-back years is made more difficult when one considers the targets defending champions must wear while reigning atop a region that includes six states.
Of the 10 defending US Youth Soccer Region I Champions, only four repeated including the FC Bucks Vipers (E-PA), a Bucks County girls soccer team that won the Under-18 Girls title July 7 in the final minutes of the championship.
Defending their Region I title, the Vipers (E-PA) won the match against Montclair United (NJ) when Madlyn Evans scored the game's only goal in the 89th minute of play.
For their efforts, the Vipers move on to their second straight appearance at nationals.
The Region I Championships took place from July 2 to 7 at at the Barboursville Soccer Complex in West Virginia. The US Youth Soccer National Championships are slated to take place July 21-26 at Citizens Bank Fields at Progin Park in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
The group of girls who make up the Viper roster are a veritable who's who among Bucks County girls soccer players, including Neshaminy alum Lyndsay Pierson of Langhorne, Pennsbury graduate Yvonne Moyer of Levittown, and Council Rock North alum Clare Roche, of Washington Crossing. All are committed to Division I soccer programs in the fall. A forward for the Vipers this summer, Moyer will play her soccer at Penn in the fall. Both defenders, Pierson is headed to Pitt and Roche is going to George Washington.
The list doesn't end there though. It also includes defender Alysha Mallon, of Newtown, and midfielder Colleen Williams, of Titusville. Both are headed to Dayton University to play soccer this fall. Forward Erin Galen, a Villa Jo Marie alum from Holland, is headed to West Chester.
A pair of Pennington School players--defender Alexa Carugati of Newtown and forward Heidi Sabatura of Lawrenceville--play to play their soccer ar Villanova. Kaitlyn Kerr of Bensalem has a year left at Pennington before she heads to Duke in 2010.
And Taylor Houck, a CB South graduate from Chalfont, is committed to play soccer at Nebraska.
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NOTES: Other repeat regional champs included the Under-14 Boys Dix Hill Thunder, Under-19 Girls FC Delco Fury II and the Under-17 Girls PDA Fire, who claimed a three-peat.
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Vipers headed to NCAA Soccer programs
1 Alexa Carugati- VILLANOVA (Newtown) Defender
2 Carly Edgecomb– VILLANOVA ( Princeton) Defender
3 Madlyn Evans– PENN STATE (Abington) Central Midfielder
4 Erin Galen- WEST CHESTER (Holland) Winger
5 Caitlin Heim- WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (West Windsor) Goalkeeper
6 Taylor Houck- NEBRASKA (Chalfont) Defender
7 Jennifer Hoy- PRINCETON (Sellersville) Forward
8 Kaitlyn Kerr- DUKE 2010 (Bensalem) Central Midfielder
9 Alysha Mallon- DAYTON (Newtown) Defender
10 Yvonne Moyer- PENN (Levittown) Forward
11 Gabrielle Pakhtigian- LA SALLE (North Wales) Goalkeeper
12 Lyndsay Pierson- PITT (Langhorne) Defender
13 Clare Roche- GEORGE WASHINGTON (Washington Crossing) Defender
14 Heidi Sabatura- VILLANOVA (Lawrenceville) Forward
15 Rachael Sheehy- PRINCETON (Exton) Central Midfielder
16 Colleen Williams- DAYTON (Titusville) Central Midfielder