Heim, Edgcomb to play for soccer crown
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
If the FC Bucks Vipers needed any extra motivation for winning a national championship, the U18 girls soccer team has all they need.
For starters, the team came so close to winning a national title last year that not winning it left a bad taste that carried over to this year. Added to that, the team has the motivation of winning for head coach Ed Leigh, who has been dealing with personal tragedy.
”Especially with our coach having had a really rough five months, we want to do well,” said West Windsor resident Caitlin Heim, one of several players on the Bucks County-based team with local connections. “He has coached a lot of the girls on the team for a long time. We were really close last year and this has been our goal ever since. We want to win the championship this year.
”The way it is set up you play a round-robin with the other three teams and then the two with the best record play in the championship. There was a three-way tie last year with three teams that were 2-1. We were the team that did not get in based on goal differential.”
In addition to Heim, a Peddie School graduate who will continue her career at Washington University in St. Louis, the team also includes Princeton High graduate Carly Edgcomb, Princeton University sophomore Kim Menafra, and two players who will be freshman at Princeton University this year — Jen Hoy and Rachel Sheehy.
The Vipers rolled to the Region 1 championship in West Virginia with a 5-0 record, topping West New York 5-0 in the semifinals, and New Jersey 1-0 in the finals.
They open play in the US Youth Soccer National Championships at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lancaster, Mass. against the Pleasanton (Cal.) Rage, meet the ESC 91 (Ok.) Black at 11:30 Thursday and play the Ohio Elite SA at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The championship round is Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
All games for the tournament, which features U14 to U19 teams, will be played just outside Boston at Citizens Bank Fields in Lancaster. Last year, the Vipers won their first two games and only needed a tie to reach the finals, but lost 3-2.
”We definitely want to win it,” said Heim, who shares time in goal for the Vipers. “I think we’ve played a little better this year and we’ve been a little more focused. And having been there last year, we’ve been through the experience and know what to expect.”
The Vipers come into the National Championship Series playing great soccer and are looking for that to continue into the finals.
”I can’t even remember the last time we lost a league game that mattered this year,” Heim said. “And this year we have beaten teams that last year we lost to or tied and then they went on to play in the national finals. So we feel like we’re playing really well right now.”
They have the motivation of last year to fall back on, as well as wanting to win for Leigh, who experienced a tragedy recently. His daughter recently gave birth to a baby. But, during the pregnancy her husband, a Philadelphia police officer, was shot and killed in the line of duty.
”We have a lot of motivation to do well at this tournament,” Heim said. “We’re playing well right now and hopefully we can do well. Playing with this team has been such a great experience. We’re looking forward to this week.”