Brian Boyles, Fernando Saldana Propel WSA Team to National Championship
/The West Side Alliance’s U19 team won the Super Y League National Championship in Tampa Bay on December 13th, and two Sandites were key contributors.
Brian Boyles and Fernando Saldana compete on the 04/05 Boys team for the WSA, a competitive soccer club based in Sand Springs and West Tulsa.
Boyles is a senior at Charles Page High School and Saldana is a 2021 CPHS alum..
“When we got there I think we all had a goal in mind and that was to win a national championship,” said Boyles.
“We all knew what we could do and we were fully capable of doing that.”
In Tampa the WSA team defeated New York’s Westchester Flames 4-3 in overtime after coming back from a 3-1 deficit. After taking the lead, they had to hold it for seven minutes.
“Going 3-1 down in the final, in the last 10 or 15 minutes you expect teams to quit,” said Boyles. “Down two goals with not much time left, I feel like we were ready for that moment.”
The finals battle was a rematch of a 3-1 WSA victory from pool play.
“It actually made it harder on us because it’s hard to beat a team twice, especially in the same tournament, and they were obviously the other best team there besides us.”
En route to the finals, the WSA group won 6-2 against Michigan’s Liverpool FC, 2-0 against Maryland’s Arundel SA, and 3-1 against Northern Virginia United Academy, in addition to the first match against Westchester.
“When we went into our first game we weren’t nervous at all like how teams are usually nervous on their first game,” said Boyles.
“We were laughing, having fun in the warmups, and it showed when we were so relaxed and won our first game 6-2.”
“I think that momentum just kept going throughout the whole tournament. I feel like we were more confident than the other teams as a whole. That just made us feel better about ourselves going into each next game.”
Saldana was named the MVP of the game after scoring both the equalizer and the game winner.
Saldana and Boyles didn’t get to play much together as Sandites. The 2020 season was canceled after only three matches due to the initial COVID-19 outbreak, then Boyles broke his foot during the 2021 season.
Despite this, the two have a close relationship. While many teammates feel a sense of brotherhood, Boyles actually describes it as a father-son relationship.
“He’s always been like the older guy in the locker room. A mentor. He’s always been someone who, if I need help with something, I can always just go and ask him. He’s a good person to learn off of because he’s humble and quiet and he’s just a guy that you want to be around.”
Boyles will be looking for some of that club success to translate into prep wins as the Sandites enter their second season under Brent Lollis this spring.
