SHAPE boys shut down BFA in Division II

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Kewin Neilsen scooted in a score just 25 seconds after the opening whistle, and Trent Castro ran onto an ill-directed clearing at the top of the box some 30 minutes later and hammered in a second score as the SHAPE Spartans blanked the Black Forest Academy Falcons 2-0 Saturday in the DODDS-Europe Division II boys soccer championship game.

"We really didn’t expect to score that fast," Neilsen, the tourney MVP said of his opening stunner. "Once we got it, we all got pumped."

The early cushion allowed a depleted SHAPE team to concentrate on keeping BFA, unbeaten this season, out of the SHAPE net.

"Our guy up front (Fabian Busch) would have had a lot more chances if we had sent people up there with him," veteran SHAPE coach Tony Blasio said, "but we decided it’d be better if we got it together and closed the gate."

Closing the gate resulted in limiting BFA to just three shots on goal in the first half and six after intermission. Even so, the Falcons didn’t stop coming.

"Black Forest is a very good, very technical team," Nielsen said.

The Falcons’ best chance came in the game’s waning minutes, when Sang Jan Yoon bounced a shot off the right post. The ball bounced to all-tournament striker Serge Ukety, but his volley try sailed over the bar.

The victory, partial revenge for the BFA girls’ title victory over SHAPE in the game that preceded this one, reversed the outcome of last year’s D-II championship game between these two rivals. BFA won that one in overtime.

In earlier title games, SHAPE downed BFA 1-0 in double-overtime in 2006 and won on penalty kicks in 2004; BFA toppled SHAPE in a 2001 shoot-out.

SHAPE was the defending champion this year in spite of last year’s on-field loss. One month after the tournament, BFA reported its inadvertent use of an ineligible player and voluntarily vacated the title.

"That one was a gift," Blasio said. "We earned this one."