The Yorkton United F.C. U14 Fury found some time to play some soccer in between the rain in recent weeks.
The team traveled to Saskatoon the weekend of June 4-6 to take part in the Harder Avalon Classic Soccer Tournament.
The U14 Fury consisted of 10regularsquad members, honorary member Rita Fetsch (U14-16 girls team) and five call-ups from the Yorkton United U12 team.
The Fury needed to bring the additional weapons to meet the tournamentsrequirementsof a 15-player roster.
The first game for the team was early on Saturday morning against the Lakewood Titans from Saskatoon.
Chad Grodzinski, who has been helping out as a team supervisor in Yorkton, said it was one of those games where you could tell that it was the team's season debut.
"This was the first game this season for the Fury and you could tell as Lakewood carried most of the play for the first half."
Interestingly enough, Grodzinski also pointed out that the rust did not stay around long and the kids managed to regroup.
"By the end of the first half Yorkton started to find their legs and each other and were able to come out of the half only down 2-1."
Come the second half, the Lakewood goalkeeper made a huge mistake and a local 13-year-old hotshot by the last name Fetsch was in the right place at the right time, for the second time in the same game, says coach Grodzinski. "In the second half Yorkton began to take control of the game carry most of the play. The Lakewood goaliemisplayedthe ball and Rita Fetsch scored to tie the game, her second goal of the game."
However, Lakewood managed to regain the lead thanks to a free kick and were able to retain the lead and go on to win, 3-2.
"We had the chances at the end but couldn't score to recover a win or a tie," observed Grodzinski.
The second game was at 1:20 p.m., versus the Eastside Nighthawks from Saskatoon. Yorkton really had a lot of energy this game and controlled most of the play taking a 2-0 lead on goals by Fetsch and Matthew McKee.
Eastside was able to cut that lead in half but against the Yorkton U14s, that would not be enough as the locals came away with a 2-1 victory.
The action was far from over.
The U14 Fury were then faced with their third match of the day and it came early in the evening against the Aurora Draco of Saskatoon.
According to Grodzinski, not much more needed to be said about how that one ended up."You could tell it was the third game of the day for the squad as the hustle from the afternoon game was no longer with them and they fell 2-nil."
This game was much like the first game of the day with Aurora carrying most of the play in the first half andYorktoncoming on strong at the end, states coach Grodzinski.
He was, however, happy with the way they played in a match where fatigue clearly started to show.
"I was proud to see the team make a comeback at the end coming close to scoring on a number of chances."
On the bright side, the U14s record of 1-0-2 was enough to give Yorkton a fourth place ranking and a spot in the semi-finals versus Aurora Draco.
That match was an early-morning date scheduled for 9:40 a.m.
"Much like their first meeting the Aurora team came out strong in the first half taking an early 1-0 lead. This game was different in the first meeting as both teams took turns carrying the play, states Grodzinski.
The Fury were able to tie the game late in the second half when Derek Campbell put the ball in the back of the net re-directing a corner kick.
The score remained tied at the final whistle and the game was forced into two 10-minute overtime periods with silver goal rules, meaning that if a team scores in overtime play continues.
"Aurora managed to score first in the extra time and hold off for the win as Yorkton had a number of chances to tie up the game but fell short."
When all was said and done, Grodzinski said it was all a good experience being the first of the season for the U14 Fury.
"Overall as a coach, I was very happy with the results of the tournament. Being that this was our first tournament and first games of the season we were still able to compete having very close games in all four matches with teams that play regular league games."
Being early in the season also means that there is going to be a break-in period for the team in order to get used to the many new faces.
The Fury were also going to have to find a few more sources for goalscoring.Fetsch was one of them, Grodzinski points out.
"We also had to deal with the fact that we had a lot of new faces in the line up and limited practice time due to the rainy weather. (Rita) Fetsch lead the tournament in scoring with three goals and Graham Campbell was voted by the players as the tournament MVP. for his heart and soul determination in thedefenceand mid-field."
His play was one of the reasons the team did so well.
