National Cup

To make your trip as easy as possible, we’ve partnered with EventConnect for all your lodging needs. 

Preferred hotels can be found online HERE

SoCal Sports Complex sits at 3300 El Corazon Dr, Oceanside, CA 92056, about forty minutes north of San Diego and ninety minutes south of Los Angeles. Both SAN and LAX are workable; John Wayne (SNA) splits the difference. Parking at the facility is $20 per day, card or Apple Pay only. Venue website

Scoring and Time

• Refs keep game time
• The table keeps the score and penalty time

Tournament Play – Pool Play (Saturday Games)

•  2 – 21 minutes halves
•  3 minute halftime
• 3 game guarantee (Pool Play)
• No Timeouts
• No Overtime
• 2025 NFHS Rules with modifications below

Playoff Rules (Sunday)

•  2 – 21 minutes halves
• 3-minute halftime
•  Playoff Games…

• Teams are awarded (1) one-minute time-out per team in Regulation Time
• The clock will stop. Timeout does NOT roll over to OT.  No timeouts in OT
• A timeout can be called when the team calling the timeout is in possession of the ball, anywhere on the field
• Overtime will begin immediately and be decided by sudden victory.  OT will have a Running Clock on all whistles.  The first goal scored wins the game.

• Injuries
  • Any injury within 2 minutes and under that requires the game to be stopped, the clock stops with the injury.
  • For any injury with more than 2 minutes remaining when the game is stopped, a maximum of 1 minute will come off the clock to assess the injury before the clock is stopped

BOYS SPECIFIC RULES

•  No stick checks unless refs think a stick is outrageously illegal
•  4 pole maximum on the field
•  Mercy Rule
  • (applies to 2035 and below) Applied when there is a 5-goal deficit in pool play.  Teams down by 5 or more goals will get a free clear after each goal.  Coaches can agree to waive this rule. DOES NOT APPLY TO PLAYOFFS 
• Counts
  • 30 seconds to advance the ball into the box (Pool Play and Playoffs)
  • 2026 – 2034 Grad Years:  Clearing Counts.
  • No Counts – 2034 Grad Year and below.  Exception is a 4-second goalie count
  • The leading team must keep it in the box under 2 minutes if they are ahead by 4 goals or less.
    • If a score changes to 4 goals or less under 2 minutes, the clock will stop and start with the whistles
    • If teams are ahead by 5 goals or more, the clock will remain running
• Checking
  • Limited body checking in 2031 – 2035.  Big hits & physical play (even within three yards of a loose ball) constitute unnecessary roughness (90 sec penalty)
  • One-handed stick checks are not allowed in any youth divisions (2034 and below)
• Penalties
  • Penalties are running time starting on the whistle (45 or 90 seconds)  Penalty time stops during injuries, end of quarters, and while another penalty is being assessed.

EJECTIONS

• Game ejections are handled by the referees
• Tournament ejections are handled by the tournament director (2 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties warrant ejection or a 1-game suspension)

RANKINGS:

• Win = 3 points
• Loss = 0 points
• Tie = 1 point
  • In the event that a team needs to play a 4th pool game in order to give a second team their 3rd game:
    •  The 4th game will be identified and acknowledged with a ‘*’ on Tourney Machine
    • The 4th game will not count for any potential points or Goals Against for the team playing their 4th game
    • For the team playing their 3rd game, the results will count for points and goals against
    • In the event that there is a tiebreaker scenario, which includes a teams head-to-head being their fourth game, that has been identified with ‘*’ the head-to-head will NOT be applied.
  • In the event, a team is declared a winner due to forfeit 
    • For ranking purposes, the goals against average for the pool play games will be the average of the games that were completed 
      • Team A wins, 10-8 and 12-8, and then forfeit is 1–0.  Their average of 8 GA will be used to rank

Tie Breakers

If 2 teams are tied with POINTS:

1. Head to Head
2. Goals Against TOTAL
3. Goals Against Common Opponent.  If multiple common opponents, take the sum.

If more than 2 teams tied with POINTS:

1. If 1 team beats the other 2 teams – that team will advance and the second 2 will fall back into tiebreaker rules
2. Goals Against Total
3. Goals Against Common Opponent (only used if all teams played a common opponent.  If multiple common opponents, take the sum)
4. Coin Toss/Braveheart
   1. If a team is still tied after these tie-breakers and is eligible for the championship playoff bracket, a Braveheart may be used to determine who advances.  The tournament director will determine the scheduling of a braveheart based on fields and availability

ROSTERING

• All players must be registered and can only play for 1 team, unless approved by the event director, in each event.
• Unregistered players are considered ineligible for play and if found may result in a team forfeiting games and player ejection from the event.
• Any teams who are found moving players or playing with ineligible players may forfeit that game and possibly any others already played.