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A U19 boys soccer team including several players from the Chisago Lakes area, won the U19 Trophy Flight B championship at the Schwan's USA Cup. Arsenal FC completed a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Gitchi Gummi, Saturday, July 21 at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Arsenal's roster contained 2006 Chisago Lakes High School graduates Blane Maher and Andy Olness and 2007 graduates Chris Golv and Tom Fitzer. Peter Rozumalski, a 2007 graduate of Luck High School in Wisconsin, who has played summer soccer in the Chisago Lakes Youth Soccer Association for the past two summers, also played for Arsenal.

The team's other regular players came from Ham Lake and several high schools in Minneapolis. As allowed by tournament rules, Arsenal added a player from Canada just for this tournament. The team began to gel during a successful regular season this summer and peaked during the USA Cup.

Other Chisago players on the Arsenal team who were not available for the tournament were Brady Huber (2006), Brian Jones (2006) and Ross Jones (2007).

In Saturday's championship game, Arsenal trailed 2-1 late in the second half. But, in the 82nd minute, Adi Bilani came down the left side on a breakaway and ripped a shot into the upper left corner to tie the game at 2-2. In the 88th minute, Hassan Mahamud fired a shot from about 25 yards out and curled it into the left corner for the winning goal.

After playing seven games in four days with only one substitute, a tired bunch of Arsenal players were knocked out of the district playoffs in a game later Saturday evening. But, they were still able to enjoy their USA Cup championship and the overall experience of playing in one of the largest international youth soccer tournaments in the world. The Blaine complex is the largest (as certified by the Guinness Book of Records) soccer complex in the world.

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