Fire Juniors overcome Windy City Pride in U-19 finale

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By Curt Herron

One of the qualities that the Chicago Fire Academy players pride themselves in is remaining professional throughout their matches.

That's not always the easiest thing to do when the stakes rise and competition gets intense against top players from other squads.

Such was the case in Sunday's Illinois Youth Soccer Association State Cup match between the U-19 Fire Juniors and Windy City Pride 35.

With fine college players performing for both teams, it's not surprising that things got a bit physical at times and emotions were raised.

But in a match that featured several cards being handed out, with most coming at the expense of the Pride, the Fire players kept their cool.

Although the Fire Juniors had plenty of good chances to put the ball into the net, their efforts were stymied during much of the match.

Finally about midway through the second half, Ethan Finlay sent a nice shot from the side that found the opposite corner of the net.

That score proved to be the difference as the Fire Juniors claimed a 1-0 win over Windy City Pride at Sportscore Two in Loves Park.

It marks the third straight year that a Fire Juniors squad had walked away with the U-19 championship in the State Cup competition.

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Things were scoreless at the break with the best chance coming late in the first half when Luke Spencer had a shot hit the crossbar.

Danny O'Leary and Jerry Maddi saw attempts deflected away shortly after the intermission as the short-handed Pride stymied the Fire.

Keeper Jordan Godsey didn't have to make many stops but he did come up with a jumping save to halt a line drive a short time later.

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A few minutes later, Finlay nearly collected the initial goal when he fired in a free kick that deflected off of the crossbar.

But when he got his next opportunity, Finlay made the most of it by scoring on a nice shot attempt to break the scoreless draw.

Finlay was later stopped on a short try before Godsey wrapped things up by punching away a free kick just before the match ended.

Click to hear Ian Christianson interview