DALLAS (Aug. 31, 2020) — The 2020-21 US Youth Soccer Frontier Conference season kicked off play over the weekend, as 54 North Texas, South Texas and Oklahoma teams in the 14U through 19U Boys and 15U through 16U Girls age groups competed at MoneyGram Soccer Park in Dallas, Texas.

In total, this season will see 120 Frontier Conference teams compete for qualification into the 2021 USYS Southern Regional Championships, as well as qualification into the 2021-22 USYS National League Playoffs.

Although Sunday’s unexpected rainfall caused the second games of the weekend to be postponed until a later date, Saturday saw teams compete to secure an early spot at the top of the standings.

The 2019-20 Frontier Conference Champions, Texas Spirit SC 06 Monk (TX-N), looked to defend its title Saturday when it kicked off the season against Houston Dash Woodlands 06 PA (TX-S).

Spirit struck first when Sawyer Kohutek managed to trap a cross from Madison Vloitos and put it past the keeper in the 4th minute. Moments later, Spirit’s Lillie Archer stole a misplaced Woodlands pass in the box and put it in the net. Team captain Ally Pinto later gave Spirit a 3-0 lead when she slid her shot just right of the diving keeper. Annie Meador and Addison Gray added to the mix for Spirit when they both scored in the late stages of the first half. Woodlands didn’t go away quietly as it was able to go on the offensive and score before the break and once again in the 60th minute. But, Spirit’s five goal scorers and a Woodlands own goal off of a Spirit corner kick led to a 6-2 Spirit victory in this season opener.

“It’s always great to get the first win,” Texas Spirit 06 head coach Rocky Monk said. “But after the game we knew we had to put this one behind us and move on to the next one. We know that there will be tough games in this conference, so we need to stay focused and be hungry.

“We started off on the right foot with a good performance Saturday. We won the Frontier Conference last year and it was disappointing after working so hard to not have the shot at Southern Regionals with it being canceled due to COVID. The message to the girls this summer was that we have to keep working hard and win the conference again this year to get our shot at Regionals and see how far we can push ourselves past that. It’s something I know we can do. We have had a handful of these girls since they were 6 or 7 years old and seeing them perform at this level has been great.”

Monk spoke on how his team will use its strengths to remain competitive as it attempts to repeat last season’s success in the Frontier Conference.  

“It’s important to us to find high level competition like this with teams to play that we wouldn’t normally play, so we are looking forward to new opponents and new obstacles to face this year,” Monk said. “Every team will have a different style. One of our team’s strengths is quickly finding the other teams’ style and learning how to compete with it. In Saturday’s game, we also had the heat as an obstacle, there is a learning curve to dealing with those types of elements, so it’s about focus, learning, and staying competitive with all of the obstacles.”

Other Frontier Conference teams that started their season in the win column…

14U Boys

FC Dallas Youth 07 Blue

Solar SC 07 McKinney

Allegiance FC 07 Red – Arana

Allegiance FC 07 Black - Pedro

15U Boys

Solar SC West 06 Martinez

BVB Academy Texas 06 PREMIER

FC Dallas Youth 06 Central Red

15U Girls

Texas Spirit SC 06 Monk

Solar SC East 06 Reese

16U Boys

D'Feeters Kicks SC 05 CARRILLO

FC Dallas Youth 05 North Blue

Houston Dynamo/Dash YSC 05 Little United

FC Dallas ETX 05 Premier

16U Girls

Sparta FC 05

Sting SC 05 Roach

17U Boys

D'Feeters Kicks SC 04 Herrera

Chelsea East SC 04

Northwest Optimist SC Esencial

18U Boys

Capital City SC 03

FC Dallas Premier 03

19U Boys

Solar SC 02 Sawyer

Capital City SC 02 Sky

Solar SC 02 Castro

19U Girls

Sparta FC 02 Elite

The next Frontier Conference hosted event will be Sept. 19-20 at the Harold Patterson Sports Complex in Arlington, Texas, and will include teams from the 19U Boys and 18U-19U Girls age groups.

For more information on the Frontier Conference, including schedules, scores, and standings, click here.

For more information on all of the National League Conferences, the National League Showcase Series, and the National League Playoffs, click here.