The Salmon Arm Secondary Golds senior boys soccer team put in Salmon Arm’s best performance in recent memory at the AAA provincial championships in Burnaby Nov. 24 to 26.
Coaches Brent Moffat and Eugene Roy were pleased.
“It was the best finish since the year 2000,” said Moffat, noting that all the boys played extremely well, although the conditions – rainy, cold and windy – were lousy.
“They left everything they had on the field; they did not come away from this tournament with anything left,” he said of everyone’s effort.
The number ‘one’ figured prominently in the team’s excellent performance. In all of the Golds games, except for one tie, there was just one goal between them and their opponents.
“When you consider it was only one-goal games that separated the teams, anyone could have won,” Moffat remarked.
After their first day of play Thursday, under pouring rain and strong winds, the Golds were undefeated. In their first game, they overtook Claremont Secondary from Victoria 1-0, with the lone goal from Logan Abbott. The Golds then went on to battle a frustrated Enver Creek Secondary from Surrey to a scoreless draw. This underlined the Golds’ strength – Enver Creek took the gold medal after three days of play.
Moffat said the Enver Creek game was one of two games he was most pleased with.
“The other one, our last game against Dover (Bay), that was the number-one ranked team in the province; they hadn’t lost a game all year. When you have those two comparisons, I thought that was pretty darn good.”
The win and tie put the Golds in second place in their pool behind Enver Creek, so on Friday they faced Terry Fox Secondary from Port Coquitlam and South Delta. Terry Fox defeated the Golds 1-0, while South Delta got by Salmon Arm in a 2-1 contest. Colton Walker notched the Golds’ goal.
The Golds’ final game Saturday was a heartbreaker. With less than two minutes left in a scoreless game, Dover Bay from Nanaimo managed to lob one into the back of the net for a 1-0 victory. This left the Golds in eighth place – the top half – of a tournament that featured 16 of B.C.’s best high school soccer teams.
Austin Schneebeli received the Commissioner’s Award, “for the athlete who showed the most leadership and support on the team,” Moffat explained.
Coaches awarded Player of the Game honours to Logan Abbott, Brendan Melin, Aidan Miege-Moffat, Morgan Crandlemire and Westlee Bischoff.
Golds’ team members were: Logan Abbott, Westlee Bischoff, Thabo Caves, Levin Chamberlain, keeper Morgan Crandlemire, Sergei Demens, Max Friesen, Brendan Melin, Aidan Miege-Moffat, Jacob New, Lucas Rampen, Daniel Schager, Austin Schneebeli, Shea Smith, Dylan Staal, Jose Trujillo and Colton Walker.