The Houston Dynamo Academy, presented by Statoil, wrapped up the first half of their season with a weekend series against Solar Chelsea SC at the Houston Amateur Sports Park. The U-18s defeated Solar 2-0 behind two goals from Carlos Ibarra (pictured, above), while the U-16s lost 2-1. On Sunday, the Dynamo Pre-Academy squads went 1-2-0 against Solar with the U-15s getting Houston's lone win.
Coming off a successful showing at the Academy Showcase in Florida, the Dynamo U-18s wasted little time getting on the board against Solar. Bryan Salazar beat a defender in the Solar box and squared a ball to Ibarra at the top of the six-yard box. Ibarra one-timed the ball past Abram Esparza for his sixth goal of the season. The Dynamo forward completed his brace in the 80th minute, slotting home a ball from Jose Rodriguez to put the Dynamo ahead 2-0. Leopoldo Castillo kept his second clean sheet of the season and the team's third overall. With the win, the Dynamo U-18s moved into second place (6-2-3, 21 points, 1.91 ppg) in the Central Conference Frontier Division.
In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, the Dynamo U-16s fell behind early after Nathanael Rennhack took advantage of a defensive miscue to put the visitor's ahead. Despite hitting the crossbar twice and the post once, the Dynamo entered halftime with a 1-0 deficit. After Solar doubled its lead early in the second half, the Dynamo pushed numbers forward and eventually broke through with a Josue Palomino goal in the 72nd minute. The loss was the second in a row for the Dynamo U-16s as the squad dropped to 7-3-1 on the season and currently sits in fifth place in their division.
On Sunday, the Dynamo U-13s and U-14s lost to Solar 2-0 and 3-1, respectively. Alejandro Lezama scored the lone goal for the U-14s. The Dynamo U-15s defeated Solar 2-0 behind first-half goals from Andrew Canales and Roberto Marquez.
All five Dynamo teams will be off for the next three weeks and will return to league action after the new year.
Visit HoustonDynamo.com/Academy to see the complete schedule for all Dynamo Academy and Pre-Academy teams.
U-18: Houston Dynamo (6-2-3) vs. Solar Chelsea (7-5-1)
December 15, 2012 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Carlos Ibarra
HOU -- Carloa Ibarra
U-16: Houston Dynamo (7-3-1) vs. Solar Chelsea (10-2-1)
December 15, 2012 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
SOL -- Goal
SOL -- Goal
HOU -- Josue Palomino
U-15: Houston Dynamo (7-1-3) vs. Solar Chelsea (4-4-0)
December 16, 2012 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
Texas Pre-Academy League
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Andrew Canales
HOU -- Roberto Marquez
U-14: Houston Dynamo (6-5-0) vs. Solar Chelsea (5-1-2)
December 16, 2012 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
Texas Pre-Academy League
Scoring Summary:
SOL - goal
SOL - goal
SOL - goal
HOU -- Alejandro Lezama
U-13: Houston Dynamo (5-2-3) vs. Solar Chelsea (4-2-1)
December 16, 2012 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
Texas Pre-Academy League
Scoring Summary:
SOL - goal
SOL - goal
All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial.
