Week 14 W-League, PDL weekly honors announced
Formiga, Crocker Players of the Week
USL News Release
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues announced Thursday its Premier Development League and W-League Teams of the Week for the final week of the season, honoring New Jersey’s Formiga and Abbotsford’s Sean Crocker as the Players of the Week, respectively. 
Looking to lock up the top spot in the Eastern Conference and finish unbeaten to claim the W-League regular season championship, the New Jersey Wildcats registered wins over playoff-bound Northern Virginia and Western Mass behind Brazilian forward Formiga.
With the Wildcats up 3-0 after the first half at Northern Virginia, Formiga used the second stanza as an opportunity to warm up for the weekend, putting the game out of reach with the next two strikes and boosting her total for the campaign to nine. The 6-0 victory assured the club the conference title and the all-important home-field advantage in the conference tournament.
Two nights later against a Lady Pioneers side that had given them their toughest test of the season coming in with a 2-1 decision earlier in the year, Formiga led the Wildcats in a rally. Katie Schoepfer, who tallied the lone strike in the earlier meeting, scored 18 minutes in to put New Jersey in their first deficit of the season. It was the third goal allowed on the year with the only other score coming via a penalty kick to Long Island in the opener.
Formiga found the back of the net in the 34th minute to level the game and scored her 11th in the 56th on an assist from defender Beth McNamara, who helped lead the back line in preserving the victory to finish the season 14-0-0 for the second time in three seasons.
In a chase for a playoff spot, the Abbotsford Rangers did one better by claiming the Northwest Division championship as well over the weekend, marking only the second time a Canadian side has won a division title in the PDL. Sean Crocker was key in the pair of shutout victories from his midfield role, providing four goals after having just one coming into the weekend.
Scoreless through the first half Saturday at home against Cascade, Crocker went on a spree, recording a hat-trick in a just a 13-minute span. He found the back of the net in the 50th, 55th and 63rd minutes as they cruised to a 4-0 win and a shot at the division title.
Tacoma FC, who had played them to a 0-0 draw and two one-goal decisions, came to Abbotsford the following night hoping to finally register a win against the Rangers. After 40 minutes of scoreless soccer Crocker again broke the stalemate, scoring on a free kick. The Rangers went on to score twice more in the second half en route to the 3-0 win and the division title.
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