Two Whitehorse teams and a Haines Junction team produced undefeated streaks en route to gold at the 2015 Whitehorse Minor Soccer Toonie Tournament.
Sports Experts topped U7, Subvert.ca Shredders U9 and Haines Junction U11 in the tournament finals on Saturday at the Canada Games Centre.
The Sports Experts team won five straight to reach the U7 final where they faced their toughest challenge yet.
They won the final 3-2 in a shootout over the Purple Team.
“Lots of energy. They all play really hard and go all-out the whole game,” said Sports Experts coach Tyler Bradford. “They were super aggressive the whole tournament.
“I’m real proud of my boys and girls. They were all playing awesome.”
The Experts drew first blood with a goal from Cy McDowell before Purple answered back midway through the half on a goal from Yakov Zurachenko, tucking the ball in the top corner.
Following some close misses on free-kicks from Purple, Experts’ Andrej Benson scored on a breakaway early in the second half. A minute later Purple’s Declan Laliberty tied it on a tough angle shot.
Experts players Chris McCarron and Bensen scored in the shootout for the win.
The Light Blue Team took the bronze with a 3-1 win over the Whitehorse Firefighters.
Haines Junction gets ‘creative’ in final
It was worth the drive to Whitehorse for the Haines Junction team.
The Junction squad captured U11 gold with a 3-1 win over Creative Works Psychology.
“Everybody is happy and celebrated really good,” said Junction coach Robin Lin. “We owe this to Jonas (Schaerig), he was a great goalie and let very few in.”
Haines Junction went through the round robin with two shutouts and a 1-1 tie against the Lime Green Team. They then topped It’s Lunch Time 5-1 - with a hat trick from Joah Thompson - in the semi to reach the final. It’s Lunch Time claimed bronze with a win over Lime Green.
“Maybe because we’re such a small community we communicate more, maybe we’re closer, maybe we have a different way of developing them in the communities,” said Lin.
“Everybody played well and I was really happy to coach this team.”
Scoring for the Junction in the final were Callum Weir, Jonas Shaerig and Mya Kinney. Emily Organ got Creative Works’ goal.
“It was exciting that we have girls finally,” said Junction coach Cindi Cowie. “We had Mya Kinney, Ecko Kirk and Psalm Clunies Ross ... Everyone did really well.”
“A lot of the kids have been together since they were six years old,” she added. “The girls are all new players, except Mya played a little bit with us once, and we have a few new players. But there’s a good solid crew that have been playing together since they were about six.”
Subvert.ca shreds the competition
The Subvert.ca Shredders kept their undefeated streak going at the toonie tourney.
The Shredders, who haven’t dropped a match all season, produced increasingly lopsided wins for most of the tournament and captured U9 gold with an 8-1 win over Titan Gaming.
“The kids listen really well and have been responsive to input and feedback, and they’re just really good team players,” said Shredders coach Geof Harries. “I’m really proud of them.”
Scoring for the Shredders in the final was Luke Cozens with a hat trick, Orion Gordon-Harry and Seth Harries each with two, and Keeden McIntosh put in one. Titan’s goal came from Gavin McKenna.
Tim Hortons captured bronze with a win over the White Team.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com