Playing on the Yukon men’s soccer team at the Canada Summer Games, Cody “CJ” Reaume and Coty “Duke” Fraser had their share of disappointment with only one win and a handful of close losses.
However, none of the defeats in PEI will probably sting as much as the loss their college soccer team suffered over the weekend, playing on the SAIT Polytechnic Trojans out of Calgary.
Competing in the finals of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference against the Mount Royal University Cougars, the Trojans were just 30 seconds away from winning their first ever conference title when a Trojan error allowed the tying goal. The Cougars then took the game, and a ticket to the Canadian championships, in a shootout.
“It was quite heartbreaking for the boys. We should have won gold,” said Trojans head coach Grant Stevens. “We should have sealed the game earlier when we were up 1-0. We had three other opportunities to score, which we did not put away. But that’s what is so beautiful about this game.”
It was the seventh appearance in the finals for the Trojans, having lost six of those to the Cougars. Adding to the frustration, just a few days before the finals, the Trojans had defeated their Cougar rivals 3-0.
Up to the finals, the Trojans were undefeated, going 7-0-3 in the regular season, capturing the conference’s south division pennant with a 2-1 win over the Concordia Thunder.
Reaume and Fraser are both first-year students at SAIT and play defence on the Trojans.
“They’ve played exceptionally well - they’re really good players,” said Stevens in an interview with the News last month, speaking of his Yukon players. “I was the (Canada Summer Games) Alberta coach, so I was able to watch Cody and Coty and scout their games in PEI.
“They do their defensive duties very, very well, so I’m very pleased and happy with their performance.
“Although they play very hard, they’re very fair; basically they’re gentlemen when they play. They carry themselves like professionals.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com