Rankin claims first co-ed crown
Nip defending champs 4-3 in heart-racing final
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
RANKIN INLET
Rankin Inlet captured its first co-ed Super Soccer title in style in Yellowknife earlier this month.
Carlo Issaluk of Rankin Inlet heads up field after getting the ball from his keeper, Lukisha Tatty, during play in the adult co-ed Super Soccer tourney in Yellowknife earlier this month. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo |
The Rankin squad knocked-off the three time defending champs 4-3 to claim the crown.
Rankin had nine men and five women at the event. Each team had to have two female players on the floor at all times among its five players and goalie.
Kris Okpatauyak said Rankin scored two 5-0 wins at the tournament, but the rest of the games were all decided by a single goal.
He said Rankin got past Behchoko FC (the favoured team going into the event) 5-4 in the semifinal, and then defeated Yellowknife's, if you're reading this it's too late, 4-3 in a real nail-biter.
"Being the defending champs for so long, they might have been a little too overconfident and didn't think we could beat them at all," said Okpatauyak.
"We were down by one with only two minutes of extra time left to be played.
"We scored twice in two minutes to beat them."
Okpatauyak said this was Rankin's first time to win the event, after coming up short its first five tries at the tournament.
He said, in his opinion, this was the best team Rankin's been able to field at the tournament, and James Merritt and keeper Lukisha Tatty were big reasons why they went all the way.
"I think this was the first time James (Merritt) was able to make it because he's usually there for hockey and he's a really good player.
"The competition was pretty intense.
"It's OK for one of your two female players to be your goalie, so with Lukisha in net, and playing so well, that really gave us an advantage.
"I found having four guys up front, with most of the other teams only having three, gave us a bit of an advantage at times, and I thought Lukisha was our team MVP because she played so awesome in net."
Okpatauyak said the team raises the funds to be able to compete in the tournament every year.
He said everyone does their share to raise the money, and he hopes that continues this year.
"Having finally won it, I hope we can keep the exact same team together, raise the money again, and go back next year to defend our championship.
"This year's tournament was a lot of fun and it was run really well.
"We had a bit of a rough start - getting used to the much bigger gym in Yellowknife than what we have in Rankin - but we adjusted pretty quickly.
"The defending champs beat us 5-1 in our first round-robin game, but we kept getting better every game after that to go all the way."
