It was a busy weekend for soccer this past weekend in Yorkton. It started Saturday morning with Yorkton United F.C.'s first of three mini soccer festivals to be held this outdoor season. They were set up to give the players involved in the Y.U.F.C.'s community leagues a chance to play some extra soccer games during the short spring/summer season and have some fun.
There are roughly about 340 players registered with the Y.U.F.C. for the spring and summer season. Players are arranged into seven age groups. Under 6, Under 8, Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, and adult leagues.
All age groups took to the fields at Sacred Heart High School (SHHS) to participate in the mini games. It was a great day for the players and the club.
Festival organizer and Y.U.F.C. technical director Andy Wyatt was happy with the way the day went.
Also recognized was Y.U.F.C. director Adam Fetsch for setting up a concession.
Y.U.F.C. sponsorship director Thor Berge and his team of volunteers, along with Terry Ortynsky and Royal Ford held a Drive One 4UR Community fundraiser for the club.
As part of the festival, the Y.U.F.C. U14 Core Real Estate Fury played host to Unidad 99's of Regina in a RSA League game.
The game started well for the team when Zach Kostersky was able to score the opening goal and give the Fury the lead.
Unidad managed to tie the game before half and then scored again in the second to hand Yorkton a 2-1 defeat. "It was a close game but the Unidad's did control the play at times and had Yorkton on their heels. We were forced to play the Unidad's type of game and we were able to hang in there and get a few chances. It just wasn't enough. We needed to play a little better to take the win from them," says Fury manager Chad Grodzinski.
The Core Real Estate Fury travelled to Regina for two more RSA League games Sunday. The first game was against the RE Inferno of Regina.
The Fury did a complete turn around from Saturday's effort and looked like a totally different team. They were able to control the play and passed the ball well amongst each other to claim a 4-1 win.
Goals were scored by Derek Campbell, Henry Thomas, and Nathan Cochrane, who added two.
"I was very pleased with the team's performance. We did exactly what we needed to win that game. If it wasn't for some unlucky goal posts the score would have been more that 4-1," Grodzinski adds.
The last game of the weekend against the A.C.F.C. Pumas was the third league game of the weekend for the Fury and it definitely showed. The Pumas came on very fast and very strong and gained an early three goal lead.
Yorkton was definitely on their heels for most of the half.
Matthew Mandziuk a U12 pick up for the game added one of his own for Yorkton before the end of the first half.
The Yorkton goal started to give the team a little bit of momentum as they started to put together some passes and get out of the survival mode they had been playing for a good chunk of the first half.
Down by two at the half Yorkton was looking for a quick strike to get back into the game. It was the Pumas that pounced first and added two quick goals to take the wind out of the Fury's sails and then added another three goals to make the final score 8-1.
"This was a real unfortunate loss. Yorkton looked like a team that had played three games for the weekend which left them with not enough gas to keep up with A.C.F.C. On another day it may have been a different story but A.C. was definitely a very strong and fast squad. Our legs couldn't keep up with them as they attacked with eight players at a time. A good number of the A.C.F.C. team was pushing six feet tall. At the U14 age level it is common to have players of various sizes but they definitely outsized us. Size doesn't always matter but when two of our players running stride is equal to one of theirs it's easy to predict who will win the foot race to the ball," Grodzinski explains.
The Y.U.F.C. U14 Core Real Estate Fury will have some time to regroup as they have some time off before the next league game which will be on June 3 against the U.C.T. Lightning at the SHHS field at 1 p.m.
