BARBOURSVILLE - The River Valley Soccer Club was given a 90-minute lesson Saturday in what it takes to succeed at the regional level.

Lower Merion Velez (Pa.), a Premier League team, turned in a solid if not spectacular performance in dominating Parkersburg-based RVSC in 5-0 victory in the under-17 boys division at the U.S. Youth Soccer Association Region 1 tournament at Barboursville City Park.

The third and final day of pool play continues at 8 a.m. today at Barboursville and the Scott Orthopedic Soccer Complex at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington. The semifinals are set for Monday with the finals Tuesday.

The other 18 teams from the Mountain State didn't fare much better Saturday, posting an 0-17-2 record while getting outscored 65-5. (See Page 6D for results and schedule.) The WVUSC Blue claimed a 2-2 tie in eight-on-eight competition in the boys under-12 bracket while, the West Virginia Chaos fought to a 1-1 tie in the eight-on-eight girls U-12 division.

A win today should send the Chaos into Monday's semifinals, where only four state teams have ever ventured. The Chaos will take on the Far Post Soccer Club of Vermont at 10:30 a.m. today. Both teams are tied atop Group C with three points apiece.

RVSC, which played a man down midway through the first half Saturday after a red-card ejection, trailed 2-0 at halftime. Lower Merion then poured it on in the second half, netting three goals.

Keiran Spader, who helped Parkersburg High to the Class AAA state championship in November, sprained his right knee early in the opening half and had to sit for most of the game, getting a long look from the sidelines at Lower Merion's play. He returned late in the second half with his team trailing 5-0.

"They just did the simple things and we didn't,'' said Spader, who will be playing at Ohio Valley this fall.

"They weren't any better than us. They just did the simple things right. That's pretty much it. We could be like them. They did it consistently all game and didn't give up. They worked harder than we did.''

BARBOURSVILLE - The River Valley Soccer Club was given a 90-minute lesson Saturday in what it takes to succeed at the regional level.

Lower Merion Velez (Pa.), a Premier League team, turned in a solid if not spectacular performance in dominating Parkersburg-based RVSC in 5-0 victory in the under-17 boys division at the U.S. Youth Soccer Association Region 1 tournament at Barboursville City Park.

The third and final day of pool play continues at 8 a.m. today at Barboursville and the Scott Orthopedic Soccer Complex at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington. The semifinals are set for Monday with the finals Tuesday.

The other 18 teams from the Mountain State didn't fare much better Saturday, posting an 0-17-2 record while getting outscored 65-5. (See Page 6D for results and schedule.) The WVUSC Blue claimed a 2-2 tie in eight-on-eight competition in the boys under-12 bracket while, the West Virginia Chaos fought to a 1-1 tie in the eight-on-eight girls U-12 division.

A win today should send the Chaos into Monday's semifinals, where only four state teams have ever ventured. The Chaos will take on the Far Post Soccer Club of Vermont at 10:30 a.m. today. Both teams are tied atop Group C with three points apiece.

RVSC, which played a man down midway through the first half Saturday after a red-card ejection, trailed 2-0 at halftime. Lower Merion then poured it on in the second half, netting three goals.

Keiran Spader, who helped Parkersburg High to the Class AAA state championship in November, sprained his right knee early in the opening half and had to sit for most of the game, getting a long look from the sidelines at Lower Merion's play. He returned late in the second half with his team trailing 5-0.

"They just did the simple things and we didn't,'' said Spader, who will be playing at Ohio Valley this fall.

"They weren't any better than us. They just did the simple things right. That's pretty much it. We could be like them. They did it consistently all game and didn't give up. They worked harder than we did.''

RVSC, which has players from Parkersburg and Ravenswood in West Virginia and Marietta and Warren Local high schools in Ohio, won the state cup in its age division to advance to regional play. But as it learned Saturday, regionals are a different animal.

"We don't play at this type of level every day like these guys do,'' said RVSC coach Steve Rose, who is also an assistant coach at Marietta College. "We can play with them in spurts, but we don't see this level every day so it's kind of a shock to our guys.

"When we do the simple things correctly, we can play with anybody but it's just hard to get that going for a whole 90 minutes. You can see it for five minutes here, five minutes there but it doesn't work at this level. These teams we're playing, just every little mistake we make they exploit and take advantage of it.''

Rose said RVSC should return intact next year a wiser group.

"I think we're one year away from being competitive,'' he said. "I think that we're close. In the future this team really can compete at this level. These guys are young.

"It's the first time they've been to this and I expect to be here again next year. These guys are already committing to me saying they want to play next year. They'll have another year before they head off to college so we'll get another good season out of them.''

Here's a look at how all 19 of the teams from West Virginia fared Saturday at the regional tournament:

 Reach Tommy R. Atkinson at 304-348-4811 or tatkin...@wvgazette.com.