The 2014 DODDS-Europe Division III soccer tournament opened Tuesday at Landstuhl and Reichenbach-Steegen, Germany, finally forcing together the organization’s smallest and most geographically remote schools.

From the Azores to Turkey and Sicily to England, the disparate players collided to create a collage of uniquely European high school sports.

Boys

Sigonella 6, Lajes 1: The final season in Lajes athletic history likely won’t end with a soccer championship. But it will end with at least one last memorable moment.

Lajes junior Yuuga Yamashiro scored a goal just 20 seconds into the first game of the school’s final postseason, stunning the confident Jaguars and giving Lajes a sweet, albeit short-lived, lead.

Yamashiro, who said he’s set to transfer to Incirlik after Lajes closes at year’s end, said the goal didn’t only surprise Sigonella.

“It actually caught me off guard,” Yamashiro said. “It’s been awhile since we’ve scored.”

The successful shot, scored off an assist by freshman Gabriel McAfee, caught Sigonella goalkeeper Thomas Wray “out of position.”

“I was just shuffling side to side, and I got too far to the left. He looked up and saw it and just shot,” Wray said. “So I watched it roll in.”

Wray rebounded nicely, however, making 12 saves and shutting Lajes out for the duration of the game. He even turned in a highlight of his own, assisting on a goal from his position in the opposite goal box.

“I’ve got a leg this year,” Wray said. “On our punts, I send them deep down to our forwards.”

Those forwards did plenty in the third-seeded Jaguars’ two wins Tuesday, including an early 5-0 rout of Ankara. Alessandro Thomas totaled five goals and three assists on the day, while Andreas McCullough scored in each game.

Schweinfurt 4, Incirlik 4: If anyone should be overwhelmed by the tournament, it’s Razorback defender Ashley Frey. She’s one of a handful of girls playing on Division III co-ed teams competing in the boys bracket. She’s a freshman making her first trip to Europeans. And her Schweinfurt squad is looking to put together one more quality postseason before the program shuts down with the school at season’s end.

But Frey is handling it all just fine. She’s noticed differences between the tournament and the regular season. The games are more competitive, the referees more meticulous, the pressure heightened.

“It’s a lot of fun because it’s a new experience, and it’s kind of cool being one of the only females,” Frey said. “But it’s a bit more intense because I have gotten a little bit pushed around by the other guys.”

Frey, and her team, more than held their own on Tuesday. The fifth-seeded Razorbacks forced a tie with fourth-ranked Incirlik, and nearly pulled off an upset of top seed Menwith Hill before falling 4-3.

Girls

Brussels 3, Sigonella 2: Whether on offense or defense, Paige Brown knows how to make an impact.

The former standout defensive sweeper stepped into the Brigands’ center midfield vacancy during the regular season, and impressed the Brussels coaches enough to keep the new gig.

“One game we were short and didn’t have any subs. All of our offense was gone, so I volunteered to play offense,” Brown explained. “And they were like, ‘Oh, I kind of like this.’”

The Brigands are especially happy with the arrangement now. Brown scored two goals on Tuesday to give the Brigands a win over the rival Jaguars.

A rival, that is, for most of the Brigands, who regularly encounter Sigonella’s core of multi-sport athletes in the Division III tournament in volleyball and basketball. But Brown only plays soccer.

“Everyone else on the team thinks it’s a rivalry,” Brown said. To her, she said, Sigonella is “just another team.”

Florence 4, Menwith Hill 1: Top seed or not, Florence certainly feels like an underdog.

Florence athletic director Roberto Clausi said the team’s roster was decimated by the unfortunate timing of the tournament. As it often does, this year’s tournament overlaps with the International Baccalaureate exam, and as such costs international schools that participate in DODDS-Europe sports several upperclassmen players. Clausi said he couldn’t even field a boys team, while the girls team is down from 26 players to 12.

Clausi added that the situation “pushes down the quality of the tournament.”

It certainly didn’t help the Wild Boars on Tuesday. Though they handled Menwith Hill behind a two-goal effort from sophomore Emma Nataloni, the top seed took a 2-1 loss to fourth-seeded Incirlik later in the day.

Pool play continues for the Division III boys on Wednesday, with the semifinals to follow Wednesday afternoon. The girls will continue round-robin play through Thursday; the top two finishers will play for the title later that day.

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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