Wisconsin Soccer Central

The SC Waukesha Blue Under-17 boys team fared much better against Cincinnati United Premier Crew Juniors Gold on Friday night than it did when the teams met a month earlier, but it still wasn't enough.

Josh McDaniel scored in the 13th minute and Jacob Scheper added a 65th-minute insurance goal as CUP Crew Juniors Gold won 2-0 on Friday night at the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships in Overland Park, Kan.

The Ohio side, which beat SC Waukesha 6-0 in the Region II final on June 26 in Des Moines, Iowa, finished atop Group A with a 2-1-0 record and will play California's West Coast FC in Sunday morning's national championship game.

SC Waukesha, the first Wisconsin boys team to play at nationals since 2007, claimed second place in the group with a 1-1-1 mark – they had the same record as Santa Clara Sporting, but won the tiebreaker thanks to its 4-0 victory over the California team on Tuesday.

Colin Dibb (Hartland Arrowhead) and Kai Bottum (East Troy) each scored two goals at the tournament, tying for second among the eight teams in the Under-17 competition.

• University of Wisconsin midfielder Drew Conner and the Chicago Fire tied Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley United 1-1 in an Under-19 boys group finale – and the same two teams will meet again Saturday night in the final. The Fire, LVU and California's Pateadores ANA all finished 1-0-2 in the four-team group, with the Fire (plus-3) and LVU (plus-2) advancing on goal differential over Pateadores (plus-1). Saturday night's battle for the James P. McGuire Cup, the oldest trophy in U.S. youth sports, will be televised live on Fox Soccer Channel starting at 6:30 p.m.
• Incoming Marquette freshman Jack Alberts and his Raiders FC Premier Under-18 team will play in their second straight national final Sunday morning. The Illinois side, last year's Under-17 runner-up, beat New Jersey's PDA Harkes 2-1 to finish 3-0-0 in group play and faces West Coast in the championship game.
• A trio of Marquette recruits will play for the Under-18 girls title Sunday with Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo. Incoming freshman Ashley Handwork and 2014 Golden Eagles commits Heather Handwork – Ashley's younger sister – and Katie Ciesiulka play for the Illinois team, which beat Oklahoma FC 3-0 on Friday to earn a matchup with Virginia's VSA Blue Heat in the final.
• Liz Bartels, who will start her college career at Marquette next week, and Nebraska's LSC EGA Bravo lost to Pennsylvania's FC Penn Strikers 3-0 and finished 0-2-1 in the Under-19 girls competition.