On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Sept. 1, 2 and 3, the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Soccer team won the Huntington Boys Club's Labor Day Weekend Tournament. The Tornadoes are girls born after Aug. 1, 1988 who are starting their fifth year of playing travel soccer for the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Soccer Club.

The team is made up of talented players who have been playing soccer within the club since they were 5 years old. They are from Oyster Bay, East Norwich and the surrounding towns including girls from Cold Spring Harbor, Dix Hills, East Meadow, Locust Valley, Brookville, Syosset and Franklin Square.

After holding team tryouts in June, the team added two new players to last year's roster. During the month of August, in preparation for the HBC Tournament and the start of their fifth season, the girls attended many competitive soccer development camps including a weeklong Global Soccer sleep-away camp in Lattingtown and they began their fall season practices at Vernon Middle School in East Norwich.

In preparation for the fall season opener on Sept. 9, the team with the support of the OBEN Soccer Club, went to the HBC Tournament for five tune-up games.

The Tornadoes won four of the five games beating Port Washington, Commack, Elwood and Hicksville, tying with South Huntington. Elena Albanese and Samantha Smith had an exceptional tournament with seven and four goals respectively. Aileen Hogerty and Darla Boccia scored their first goals as Tornadoes being the newest members of the team. Natasha LaBranche scored a great goal from left wing while Kate Harrison and Gabby Sirow managed three shutout games. Much credit must be given to our defensive lineup of Alex Huerfano, Erika Reckert, Jackie Bruscella, Cloe LaBranche and Samantha Sternbach for their excellent defensive plays. Gabrielle Lamberta, Amy Sanjanwala and Meri Chesler had an outstanding tournament controlling the midfield area.

The girls would like to thank two outstanding guest players from the Plainedge Cougars, Kelsey Garske and Janine Carozza who contributed some inspiring offensive and defensive plays.

The 12 OBEN travel teams kicked off their fall games on Saturday, Sept. 8. They will play 10 games, five home and five away. The home games are played at Vernon Middle School and East Woods School on Saturdays and Sundays. Come and watch your home teams play exciting soccer.

Sept. 22 saw the start of the intramural program. Children of 4 years old and up were formed into teams, given great new uniforms and started their weekly games.

Good luck to all coaches and players this fall season.