The Real Salt Lake U-17 and U-19 sides returned to action on Saturday, taking on Nomads SC and beating the side from California 5-0 and 9-0 respectively, combining for 14 total goals on the day.
The U-17s opened the proceedings at America First Field with the 5-0 win, a game that saw FW Ben Ortiz score his second of the season while assisting on three other goals in the match.
“Nomads has traditionally given us a hard time,” Assistant Coach Juan Fresquez said of the U-17s. “Anytime we play against them it’s a hard game and today we took care of business.”
Adding to the goals tally were DF Mateo Palomino, MF Bode Davis, MF Bryce Duke and MF Casey Lambert while GKTyler Kirberg earned the shutout in goal.
In the second match of the afternoon, the RSL U-19 side ran rampant over Nomads SC posting eight second-half goals to rout the Southern California club. DF Alexis Canales opened the scoring in the first stanza, scoring a header that proved to be the winner on the day for RSL.
“Today was a great response from our first game. Knowing the boys I know they weren’t happy with our last result against Portland,” Academy Technical Director Martin Vasquez said. “Even if we played one of the best teams, our response would’ve been the same.”
Six different players scored for the U-19 side with five players opening their account for 2017 including MF Richard Ledezma, MF Taylor Booth, MF Diran Bebekian, DF Nitai Bettan and FW Zahir Vasquez.
GK David Ochoa played the full 90 minutes in goal to earn the shutout for the RSL U-19s.
Both teams will return to action next weekend as they travel to face Sacramento Republic FC. The RSL U-17s will kick off at 11 a.m MT with the U-19s kicking off shortly after at 1:30 p.m. MT.
