Dylan Sands fired in one of his two first-half goals against Brewster in first-round action on Friday.
A mixed team of Methow Valley and Chelan-area athletes under the team identifier LCFC Methow (Lake Chelan-Methow Football Club) swept through the 13U division of the Wenatchee Apple Cup Soccer tournament last weekend. It was their second consecutive tournament win, on the heels of a title run at the Tukwila Cup three weeks ago.
They rolled to three preliminary round wins over Brewster, 12-0, Wenatchee FC (Red) 3-1 and Valor FC (Kent-Auburn) 7-1, before defeating the Wenatchee Red team in a reprise for the championship, 3-0.
Play got underway Friday afternoon with the local team jumping out to an early 6-0 lead on Brewster. Right up until start time tournament officials were unsure if air quality conditions would permit play. The smoke lifted enough to permit play by the scheduled 3:30 p.m. kickoff time and the Methow/Chelan team wasted no time, scoring the first goal just two minutes into the match as Leo Pacheco set up Theo Durfey with a nice pass into the goal box. Pacheco and Dylan Sands each added two goals of their own and Finnley Swartz tallied a solo goal leading to a 6-0 halftime lead and the eventual 12-0 shutout for the game.
Pacheco and Sands completed hat tricks, each scoring a second-half goal with Walker adding his second. Solo goals by Aiden Lewis, Marseil Kelly and Chloe Kolman added to the final score.
The weather settled a bit on Saturday with lower temperatures and a steady breeze carrying the smoke away from the Wenatchee Valley.
In the 3-1 Game #2 win over Wenatchee, Sands opened the scoring with a shot off a corner kick after about 20 minutes. Wenatchee answered with a goal of their own to tie the match at 1-1. It turned out the only time a team would realistically challenge the “locals” for the lead beyond the first few minutes of play, the two teams going into the intermission knotted at 1-1.
About two minutes into the second half, Huxley Walker’s rocket rebounded off the Wenatchee keeper, and Durfey was there to collect the rebound and rifle it into the net for a 2-1 lead. Pacheco found Wiley Carr to set up a breakaway and Carr puthe ball past the goalie for the 3-1 final.
Sands scored his fifth tourney goal early in first half to ignite a 7-1 rout of Valor FC from the Kent Valley. David Lorenzano scored his first tourney goal and Valor answered with one for a 2-1 halftime score. Walker opened the second half with a goal to spread the margin to 3-1, followed by a goal from Aiden Lewis and a pair of late goals by Pacheco for the final 7-1 score.
Sunday’s title game was a rematch with Wenatchee Red. The LCFC-M youth were ready for the challenge and responded with a 3-0 shutout for the championship.
An early goal by Wiley Carr over the Wenatchee keeper’s head and just under the crossbar got the offense rolling early. But Wenatchee’s defense was staunch and held the locals out of the net until the 20-minute mark when Pacheco fired a shot into the corner of the net. Sands scored his sixth tourney goal on a penalty kick near the end of the first half to extend the score to 3-0 by the break and all was good in the LCFC-M camp.
The second half was played mostly in the middle half of the pitch with lots of ball control and some good defense, neither team mounting much of a threat.
Coach Kevin Kolman emphasized a more spread out passing game on offense and disciplined defensive play. “The Methow defense composed of Charlie Lott, Huxley Walker, James Walls and Chloe Kolman turned away most Wenatchee attacks before they could get shots off,” he said. Kolman also had high praise for goalkeeper Levi Covell, who recorded two shutouts on the weekend.
This was the second big tournament win in the past several weeks for the club coming off the Tukwila Cup in the Seattle area. “The 16 Methow players showed greatly improved combination passing,” said Kolman after the tourney. “They made big strides in communicating and defending as a team and overall showed they were the team to beat in the tournament.”
The season isn’t quite over for the program. “We’re looking into one additional tournament during the last few weeks of summer and then we will shift our focus to the Washington Premier League fall season which starts just after Labor Day,” Kolman said. “We plan to have the team traveling throughout Eastern Washington and, hopefully, playing home games in Twisp.”
18U boys share Apple Cup title
Liberty Bell and Methow Valley youth soccer mates Eldon Smith, Ezra Rowan, Bodie Thomson and Leatham Peterson joined up with Lake Chelan FC to win the 18U Apple Cup Championship, also over the weekend in Wenatchee. Peterson tallied four goals and a pair of assists, and Smith recorded one of each during the tournament.
Thomson, Liberty Bell’s 2026 valedictorian and Claud Watkins Award winner, is the only graduated Liberty Bell senior in the group and will be going on to play soccer for the Whitworth University Pirates in Spokane. Smith is an incoming freshman, Rowan will be a junior and Peterson a senior this coming year for the Mountain Lions.
