On the weekend of Nov. 5-7 the Yorkton United F.C. U14 traveled to Saskatoon for their first tournament of the indoor soccer season at the Lakewood Kick Start Soccer tournament.
This was the first tournament and first taste of real game experience of the indoor season for the team. United head coach Chad Grodzinski said it was a good experience for a young team and that a silver medal is nothing to be upset about.
"I was very pleased with our first tournament. You come in not knowing how the team would match up especially with only having four senior players and then have an opportunity for gold so I am very pleased with the silver medal finish."
The U14 Fury are a squad of 14 boys with only four players having experience at the U14 level. The first game was Saturday afternoon vs. the VSA Rovers from Saskatoon. Yorkton took an early lead with a goal by Jaden Porte and continued to carry most of the play but were unable to find the back of the net for the remainder of the opening half.
They did manage to hold on to their 1-0 lead heading into the final 90 minutes. In the second half, the Fury began to find the mark with two goals from Ryan Nussbaumer, and Porte with his second before Austin Spear tallied to finish off the 5-nil win.
Their second match of the day was against the host club, Lakewood Falcons. The game was a back-and-forth battle, Grodzinski said, with Lakewood taking an early lead but then Yorkton added two of their own and then each team traded goals after that.
It ended in a 4-3 final victory for Yorkton. Porte continued his scoring streak, adding one while Matthew McKee had a hat trick for the win.
The victory gave the Fury a record of 2-0 and also gave the squad a bye to Sunday's gold medal finale game where they were up for a rematch with the Lakewood Falcons.
This time, the momentum swung early in the Falcons' favour, Grodzinski said, as they built up a lead and were able to hang on to win 3-2. McKee and Porte both tallied for Yorkton.
It was one of the few matches where they fell behind early and had to rely on what little experience the players had, he added. "Unfortunately it was a situation where we fell behind and had to rely on our veteran players to try to dig us out. They just ran out of gas."
