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Leaving it all on the soccer pitch

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, May 6, 2010

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. - Silver and bronze medals accompanied Deh Cho soccer players as they returned from a weekend of competition in Grande Prairie, Alta.

Six teams from the region, including five from Fort Simpson and one from Fort Liard, participated in Ernie's Rock Around the Clock soccer tournament from April 30 to May 2. The Fort Simpson U19/17 boys' team and the U15 girls' teams both emerged with medals.

Heading into the tournament the U19/17 Fort Simpson Rebels didn't expect to finish in the top three, said Shane Thompson, the team's coach.

All but two of the Rebels' players were under 17 making them a young team in their division. In spite of their youth the team started strong, beating Fort Liard 7-4, Grande Prairie 10-4 and Hay River 8-1.

In the finals against Fort Smith the scoreboard didn't look good for the Rebels. Smith was up 4-0 by half time and 5-0 shortly afterwards. There were only 12 minutes left on the clock when the Rebels got their first goal.

"We scored our first goal and just seemed to click," Thompson said.

The Rebels scored a total of four goals in 11 minutes. Now just one point from tying the game, the Rebels failed to capitalize on their final scoring opportunities. When the buzzer rang the score was 5-4, giving the Rebels second place in their division.

"It was disappointing," said Thompson, but the team was still happy with second.

Thompson singled out Jordan Villeneuve, the team's goalie, for praise.

"It's probably the best goal-tending I've seen him play in his career," Thompson said.

Fort Liard finished 5th in the division.

Also on the podium were the U15 TSS Wolves. The girls took bronze in their eight-team division.

In their pool, the Wolves won 3-2 versus Hay River, lost 10-1 to Beaumont International Selects (an Alberta team), and won 15-1 against the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. In their final game, the Wolves faced off against Ecole Boreale of Hay River.

"It was a hard game," said Val Gendron, the team's coach.

The final score was 3-1. The Wolves won by believing they could get to loose balls first and hustling to make it happen. The team also had a strong defence, Gendron said.

In the same division on the boys' side the Thomas Simpson team finished with a record of three losses and one tie.

The U15 boys lost 5-1 to Team NWT before coming tack to tie Hay River 4-4. Devan Horassi scored all of the team's goals in both games. In their final two games the team lost 6-3 to Fort Smith and 5-3 to the Spartans, an Alberta team.

"I'm very pleased with the effort every boy gave in every game," said Kristen Morrison, the team's coach.

"Even though they were a smaller, younger team they gave everyone they played a good game."

The tournament was "awesome," said Kody Hardisty-Sangris of Jean Marie River, who played net for the team.

The team definitely got better with every game, he said. This was Hardisty-Sangris' first year at the tournament.

"It was pretty hard," he said about being goalie.

The other two Fort Simpson teams finished the tournament with similar results. The Bompas U11 mixed team lost two games before winning their last one.

"They progressively got better," said coach Berni Leader.

The team won their final game 9-5 against Ecole Boreale. Tyler Lafferty scored seven of the goals in the game while Aleyx Smith and Harley Betsedea each scored one.

The U19 girls' team that played as the TSS Wolfpack finished with two losses and one tie. After a heavy loss against Behchoko the team tied Diamond Jenness of Hay River 3-3 before losing to Fort Resolution 4-2.

"They worked their little hearts out," Leader said.

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