Three club soccer teams with Snoqualmie Valley players tested their mettle last week against some of the best teams in the West.

The Crossfire club’s U-16 boys and U-18 girls teams and Eastside Football Club’s U-18 boys team were among the hundreds of teams from across the western United States that played in the U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV Championships in Lancaster, Calif.

Both Crossfire teams made the quarterfinals. For the Redmond-based girls’ U-18 squad, the week opened strong with a win Monday, June 15, against a team from Arizona. But the tournament changed in a flash on Tuesday, June 16, as Crossfire took on the Leahi Premier team from Honolulu, Hawaii.

Crossfire opened the scoring, but a tournament-defining crisis came when ex-Mount Si girls’ soccer star Nikki Stanton suffered serious injuries to her leg and knee, and was knocked out of the game.

Stanton’s father told the Record by e-mail that the recently graduated Stanton will need surgery to repair the damage. Her injuries may take several months to heal, meaning her freshman season this fall with Fairfield University in Connecticut is in jeopardy. Stanton will likely be able to take a medical redshirt season, however, and not lose any college eligibility as a result of the accident.

Despite the injury, Crossfire won 2-1. For the team, the next challenge was how to respond to this setback.

Without Stanton, Crossfire coach Porter Lombard looked to make some adjustments in the Wednesday, June 17, game against opponents from Boise, Idaho. Crossfire gave it their best but lost, 2-1. After a rest day, they played Friday, June 19, in a playoff opener against the SoCal Blues from Orange County, Calif. Crossfire fell 3-0 to close the tournament.

Crossfire’s U-16 boys’ team, with ex-Mount Si boys goalkeeper Ryan Herman from Fall City on board, had a solid run through their pool with a pair of 5-0 wins against teams from Colorado and Alaska on Tuesday and Wednesday. For a time, it looked as if they might make a run in the playoffs. But the boys fell to a strong West Coast FC team from Orange County on Friday.

Herman will be a senior this fall at Mount Si; he did not play for the Wildcats this spring due to club conflicts.

Eastside FC’s U-18 boys, which includes ex-Wildcat boys’ goalkeeper Cody Tipton, also played in the tournament. They had a tough opening draw with games against teams from San Francisco, San Diego and Denver. They fell to all three of their opponents and did not advance out of their pool.

The three Valley teams earned their berths at the event by winning their respective divisions in their state championship tournaments.