RAMLA, ISRAEL — The Israel U-19 Men’s National Team saw their first game action on home soil, falling to the Birthright/USA All-Stars, 7-5, in the blistering heat at Park Ofer on Friday.
The shortened match kicked off a four-game exhibition tour that pits all-star squads of American college players on their Taglit-Birthright trip against Israeli squads.
Austin Tomasetti and Josh Della-Puca led Taglit with two goals apiece, while Jake Cotton, Brent Greenberg and Sam Mishkind chipped in singles.
The U-19 Israeli side, although supplemented by a handful of reserves from the Men’s National Team, played admirably in their first real game action against such strong competition for many of the players. Joshua Bernstein paced the blue-and-white with two goals, while Sagi Hashai, Yinai Bittmann and Ron Rentura each added a goal.
Team Birthright is back in action on Wednesday night, when they take on the Men’s National Team at Shapira Field in Netanya.
The Israel Women’s Team and Birthright also held a scrimmage, with Israel prevailing 4-3. Amanda Tuck and Sarah Meisenberg scored two goals apiece for the blue-and-white, while Lauren Rosenberg, Abby Goldstein and Sarah Anderson each scored for Birthright. Lexy Pinsky added an assist.
Additional caps – Lidor Ashtamkar, Moshiko Aviv, Ori Bar David, Alon Bechor, Liron Glam, Andrew Landsman, Ilay Mashash, Alex Mihailov, Jake Reiner, Bar Yahalom