Adonis Diaz pumped in his fifth and sixth goals of the young season as the Earthquakes under-13/14 academy team beat a solid Placer United 3-0 on Saturday at JohnMise Park.
The young Quakes (4-0), who have outscored their first four opponents a combined 16-3, were pleased to get their first shutout. Jason Yanez notched his second goal of the season in the fifth minute.
Additionally, the Quakes celebrated the return of national team player Jean-Julien (J.J.) Foe Nuphaus, a center midfielder who played a strong 30 minutes coming back from a broken leg. He’d been sidelined for about 1 1/2 months.
“It was nice to see him kind of work his way back into the squad,” coach Jeff Jenkins said of Foe Nuphaus. “You lose a national team player like that, and other kids have to step up, which they have. But it was nice seeing J.J. back on the field.”
Jenkins sees the team taking some positive steps in its play.
“This is the first game that I thought it was a pretty complete effort from them, from the start,” Jenkins said. “Getting on the board a minute in and keeping the shutout throughout. The cool thing was we were able to give a lot of our kids a good amount of playing time.”
The nucleus of the team has been together for 2 or 2 1/2 years, so the new players have had the double challenge of blending in with the returners while adjusting to the speed of academy play – no small task.
“It’s so much faster,” Jenkins said of academy play. “You make a mistake in the academy level, and the other team will punish you. It was a good step forward.”
Being in the Earthquakes program can be an eye-opening experience. The U-13/14 squad was scheduled to join the other academy teams and club president Dave Kaval at the new stadium on Tuesday. The under-14 club team was also set to attend.
Jenkins said his players are “thrilled” from watching the first-team players on TV.
“Now they’re able to wear the same uniform that these guys are wearing,” Jenkins said. “It’s a huge, almost a mini-pro level experience that they get to have. We have a Quakes event with Dave Kaval up at the new stadium, which is going to be pretty cool. … That’s another step. Hopefully, we’re developing a player or two that can play in that stadium when it’s up and running. They’re all excited to be a part of the Quakes.”
The Earthquakes under-15/16 and under-17/18 squads, both off to fast starts, had a bye last week and will return to action against the Santa Cruz Breakers at Cabrillo College on Saturday. The games are at 12:30 p.m. (17/18s) and 3 p.m.(U15/16s). The U/13/14s will complete the tripleheader against Santa Cruz Breakers at 5:30 p.m.
