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INUVIK - After playing five scrappy matches between Saturday and Sunday, Yvonne Carpenter walked with a slight limp but a full smile.

Her squad, Al's Team, finished sixth out of seven teams in the four-day Balls of Glory soccer tournament, held at the Samuel Hearne secondary school gym from May 7 to 10.

PB&J player Jason Baxter, left, lunges for the ball, while Jill Chinna of Unforgiven makes a crafty move to slip by during championship game action on Sunday. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photos

But she was glad to get out and enjoy some intense competition.

"Everyone on our team walked off the court smiling and laughing," she said. "That's the main thing," said Carpenter.

Spending most of her time nowadays coaching, she relished the opportunity to get out and give it her all.

"Everybody's happy," said Carpenter, who also refereed a few games on Sunday including the championship game. "It was a really good turnout and good competition, and the tournament was run really well."

The Unforgiven squad eventually won the championship game against PB&J by a score of 6-1 on Sunday evening. But it was an intense play-off run with three teams tied for first after regulation play. More than 50 players signed up for the tournament. Unforgiven player Scott Lundrigan said it was great to come out on top of the tournament, but he was most impressed by the number of players who participated and all the fresh faces.

"It tells me more people are becoming attracted to soccer," he said. "I've seen a lot of people that I've never seen before playing and that's awesome. It was pretty even; it was pretty fierce; it was pretty awesome."

Lundrigan's team lost to PB&J in the preliminary matches but he said his squad was able to gel when it counted.

He was quick to give credit to tournament organizers Cheryl Kirby and teammate Jill Chinna for doing a stellar job. With help from several local sponsors including the Gwich'in Tribal Council, and after more than a month of preparation, the two were able to run a seamless tournament that boasted gold and silver medals and prizes galore for refs and the top six teams, including tournament logo T-shirts, water bottles, soccer socks and gift certificates.

Chinna said she was thrilled so many people came out and co-operated, adding it was especially nice to see parents pitted against sons and daughters.

"It's the people that make it a success," she said. "If they didn't make an effort to show up, pay their registration fees, play fair and help clean up, then it just wouldn't work."

She said she's already looking forward to a bigger and better tournament next year.