The latest Illinois Youth Soccer rankings just came out today, and the EMSSC Spartans U12 team has leapt into the top ten, at the number 9 ranking! The team is 16-3 and has only lost to teams ranked in the top three from Illinois and Missouri. Last weekend, they finished second at the Peoria Oktoberfest after a thrilling 4-3 loss to Peoria, which was ranked #1 last year and is in the top three this year, but the road to the championship game included wins against three teams ranked in the top 15 and two in the top 10. The team includes Lawson Zulu, Connor Wehr, Baylor Smith, Elijah Nache, Xavier... Read More

Different uniforms, same results. Led by the core of the now-disbanded Mid America Premier youth soccer squad, augmented by various players from the likewise defunct Moline United, the new Quad-Cities Rush continued their dominance at the U11 youth soccer level, remaining undefeated after three tough matches against some of the best soccer teams in Illinois and Iowa this weekend. The Rush, ranked fourth in the state according to the latest GotSoccer rankings for u11 teams, began the weekend 5-0-0, but had a tough mountain to climb on Saturday with back-to-back games at 3 and 4:30 p.m. in the scalding... Read More

Mid America Premier youth soccer dissolved over the summer but it ended its run on top. GotSoccer, the international site which ranks teams from around the world, ranked Mid America Premier’s undefeated U10 team as number one in Illinois for the 2017-18 season, ahead of its rivals in Peoria and Chicago and the vaunted Scott Gallagher teams from St. Louis and southern Illinois. The MAPS red squad was undefeated in its age group as well as the U11 age range, and scored tournament wins across the state and region, including wins in Elmhurst, Peoria, Morton, Muscatine, LeClaire, Wisc., Crystal Lake... Read More

It was a strange, sloppy game at times, played on a pee wee-sized field that led to a lot of barely missed shots, but it was a win, and that was the important end result as the top U10 youth soccer team in the Midwest region, Mid America Premier Red, opened its Illowa League schedule with a 8-2 win over Q-C Legends at Rock Island’s Campbell Sports Complex on Sept. 10. Premier largely dominated the contest even beyond the final score, peppering the Legends goalie with shots and just missing the goal more than a dozen times with blasts. But with a game that started 15 minutes late due to a referee... Read More