Thunder U17 boys win regional title, advance to club soccer nationals

SEATTLE - Jake Nelson scored on a breakaway with less than 10 minutes remaining to give the Idaho Thunder boys soccer team the lead for good in a 3-2 win over Seattle-based Pacific Northwest '94 to win the U17 U.S. Club Northwest Regional championship Tuesday.

Nelson finished the tournament with eight goals, two in the title game, for the Idaho Thunder, who advance to nationals in Chicago the final weekend in July. Most of the players were on the Thunder U16 team that finished runner-up last year at nationals.

"Jake had an unbelievable weekend," Idaho Thunder coach Briggs Anderson said. "That was the goal we always had this year. We knew we could always go for it. We had a lot of luck this weekend. The kids played really hard and hopefully we'll make some waves at nationals."

Timmy Mueller scored the other goal in the first half for the Thunder, who led 2-0 at halftime.

"We had a lot of the possession in the first half," Anderson said. "We scored two quick goals back-to-back and then they got back into it."

Monty Boyd had 12 saves for the Thunder, who include players from Post Falls and surrounding areas.