United in success: Peoria youth soccer team makes history
Dave Eminian
PEORIA — Nathan Porch watched his team soar through the myriad talented teams in the United States Youth Soccer postseason.
Further, in fact, than any Peoria soccer team had ever gone in the President's Cup.
The Peoria FC United under-13 boys team rolled to a Midwest Regional championship in June, then two weeks ago reached the finals of the 2021 USYS President's Cup national championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
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Their incredible ride came to an end in the championship game with a 2-1 loss in double overtime to a team from California.
"That was a great run, we're so proud of these boys," said Porch, the team's head coach and a therapy/rehab manager for OSF St. Francis. "Their play just kept building and building and they got better every match. We just watched and wondered how high they would go.
"It was so close at the end. Not much difference between two teams in double overtime."
And that runnerup finish was historic.
"There has never been a team in Peoria that went to the President's Cup national championship match," Porch said. "It was fun, just a great experience. They all wanted to play for each other, and that's part of why we were winning."
Peoria FC United was born in 2019 as a merger between two longtime competing soccer clubs — FC Peoria and Peoria Soccer Club.
They have been developing youth soccer players for over 40 years separately. Now they do it together, in a terrific facility in Mossville where they train and play. The club has more than 600 travel member families in it.
The under-13 boys team headed into the USYS President's Cup Midwest Regional in June at West Chester, Ohio and won the whole thing, emerging from a field that included North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.
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They beat the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Soccer Club 3-1 in the semis and Michigan Rush Downriver 3-1 in the title match to run through the tournament 4-0-1.
They moved on to the national championship tournament in Des Moines, where they captured medals for second place.
That battle included a scoreless tie with Keystone Premier (Pa.,), a 1-0 win over Paso del Norte (Texas) and a 2-0 loss to Premier Soccer Blue (California). Finally, came that 2-1 double-OT loss to that same California team in the championship match.
Peoria FC United also had four players selected to the 2021 President's Cup national championship Best 11 squad: Bijan Champagne (Pekin), Jacob Walton (Dunlap), Drew Chovanec (Dunlap), and Nathan Boyer (Peoria) on being selected the All-Tournament Team. Another, Joe Heiar (Dunlap), earned the Golden Glove award, which goes to the top goalkeeper.
"The boys played their hearts out," Porch said, of his team after it went 10-2-2 in President's Cup state, regional and national tournaments. "They worked so hard ... it showed during this amazing run."
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.