The Stettler teams played their hearts out at the soccer provincials over the weekend and although rain caused major setbacks throughout the tournament with games being postponed, it did not deter U12 and U16 girls from winning the ‘Fair Play’ awards in the weekend.
The U12 girls started the provincials with a game cancellation after a five-minute pre-game warm up on Friday night, July 8 in St. Paul.
“This game cancellation caused us to have three games on Saturday,” said coach Nadine Lang.
Their first game was against Athabasca who came out strong and challenged the Stettler players and “tested our goalie throughout the game”, with Stettler losing 2-0.
“We rallied back in the afternoon against Lac La Biche and won 1-0, with the lone goal being scored by Kenya Richards,” added Lang. “We kept our streak hot going with a third win 3-0 against Olds.”
Richards scored twice and Robbins once.
This put Stettler in the bronze-medal game against Fort St. John, BC but they came up short losing 3-1, with Robbins scoring the only goal.
“We had a great season this year winning the CASA League Championship and continuing on to win the CASA Provincial Qualifier Tournament in Rocky Mountain House,” said Lang. “We went in to the provincial tournament knowing there would be a high caliber of play and we came away knowing that we competed with the best of them and the outcomes could have easily gone either way, we’re very proud of our girls and all that they have accomplished this year and are already looking forward to the next season.”
On Monday morning, July 11, the coaches were informed that the U12 girls had won the ‘Fair Play’ award.
For the U14 girls, weather played a major role, creating unexpected early stops.
Stettler played Cold Lake on Friday night, July 8, but due to the weather, the game was called 10 minutes early and they weren’t able to finish it and had to accept a 1-0 loss. On Saturday, Stettler played Olds and won 1-0 and then lost 4-0 to Edson later that day.
On Sunday Stettler played Leduc and won 6-0.
“It wasn’t the best weekend I’ve seen from my girls but I am still extremely proud, as their level of improvement is beyond anything I could’ve hoped for and I’ve loved every minute of being their coach,” said coach Kennedy Fisher. “Even though we didn’t end up playing for a medal, I could not be more proud of this team and the amazing season they’ve had.”
The U16 girls who travelled to Camrose for their provincial challenge did not have much luck either as they lost the first three games, winning the fourth game 1-0 against Athabasca.
“I’m very proud of the girls for not giving up,” said coach Shelly Davis Hall.
The U16 girls won the ‘Fair Play’ award.
The U16 boys also played in Camrose against Carstairs on Friday night, July 8 and won 5-2, playing St. Paul next and losing 3-2.
“Then the boys bounced back and won with a 13-0 against Devon, which put us into the bronze medal game against Camrose on Sunday morning, but unfortunately we lost 5-0 leaving us with a fourth place finish in the province,” said coach Garrett Burns. “I was very proud of the boys as we are a very young team only having four second-year players and having three players pulled up from the U14 team, but the boys performed well all season and this provincial tournament was no different.”
Burns added that he couldn’t have asked for a better group of boys to coach and is looking forward to next season to start off.