Members of the Triangle Futbol Club Navy Under-19 team have been playing together for seven years. Although every player is now playing college soccer, they came together for one last shot to reach the US Youth Soccer National Championships.

But the Triangle Futbol Club's hopes of moving on to Little Rock, Ark., fell short Wednesday as it lost 2-0 to North Texas Solar '89.

Two hours later, on another field across the WRAL Soccer Center, the Triangle United Gold U16 team added another chapter to its young history.

After being together as a team for only two years, Gold defeated the South Texas Lonestars 92B Red 4-2 to reach the national championships.

Gold is the only Triangle team that survived the US Youth Soccer Region III Championships held in Raleigh and Wilson the past several days. The CASL Elite U15 and CASL Elite U17 teams each lost in the final round. The SCSA Gold U14 team from Charlotte will be joining Triangle United Gold as the only teams from outside of Texas to advance to nationals.

Although it went down early in the first half after two quick goals by the Lonestars, Triangle United Gold regrouped to end the half trailing by a goal.

Captain Glen Alan Long anchored the team in the second half, scoring twice off assists from Sebastian Garner to give Gold a 3-2 lead.

A Gold goal off a penalty kick with 30 seconds remaining put the game out of reach.

"In the first half, we gave them way too much respect," Long said. "They had won too many games that we heard about, and we came out too scared. But it was about self-respect [in the second half]. We weren't just going to come all the way and just lose."

Navy, Solar feel heat

After playing six games in the blistering heat for six days, the Triangle Futbol Club Navy U19 and the North Texas Solar '89 teams struggled to create any offense in the first half.

About 15 minutes into the second half, Solar struck twice, one off a corner kick and the other when the ball was knocked in by the Navy defense.

When the final whistle blew, Navy players left the field dripping with sweat and disappointment.

"It's tough, but I'll see all these guys again with school ball," said Navy's Tyler Duncan, who also plays for Charlotte. "Other than that, we have a few kids from New York and I probably won't see them.

"We finally won a state championship this year, and to make it all the way to regional finals and to lose on two fluke goals is frustrating. But, you gotta move on."

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