The Yorkton United U14 Core Real Estate Fury soccer team travelled to Regina July 6-8) to compete in the annual Summerfest Soccer Tournament. Due to players having prior commitments the Fury's regular U-14 squad was unavailable for the tournament, forcing changes to be made. The Fury squad was a makeshift outfit of eleven players from the U-14 Fury and U-12 Chelsea squads. The Yorkton Fury first faced the Q.C United 2000s and despite controlling the game some missed chances and poor officiating allowed the 2000s to squeak by Yorkton with a 2-1 victory.
Friday's loss put a huge blow into the Fury's title hopes as they then were forced to enter a Saturday in which they had to play multiple games with no substitutions, giving their opponents an automatic advantage heading into every match.
Saturday sprung more obstacles as one of the Fury players had to leave Regina for another prior commitment which left the Fury playing short a man with only 10 men on the pitch. This put the Fury in a very disadvantageous position when they faced Q.C. United Green Saturday morning. The game got off to a good start as Yorkton's Derek Campbell scored the first goal but Q.C. was able to tie the game up when they were awarded a penalty.. Derek Campbell fired back with three more goals for a total of four goals in an instrumental performance in the Fury's victory. Thomas Djagowez added two and Matthew Mandziuk and Spencer Steele added singles as Yorkton went on to a 8-1 victory. The 8-1 rout was an impressive bounce back after suffering an aggravating loss on Friday that had the Fury losing a game that they should have won. A nice bounce back win by the young YUFC players showed a short memory by the Fury and that they know how to handle adversity and won't slip into the funk of a losing streak after a tough loss. "The early goals by Campbell and some key saves by our keeper Zach Shearer helped the momentum get rolling and took the wind out of the sails of Q.C. and most important the rest of the team did not let up," added Fury manager Chad Grodzinski.
Next for the Fury was South West United, a team based out of Swift Current and area whom will be competing at Saskatchewan Summer Games. The South West team came with a full bench ready to make fresh substitutions in the hot afternoon sun, making strategy much harder for the ragged Fury side. In the first half the play went back and forth with Yorkton out chancing South West. Derek Campbell opened the scoring to give Yorkton a very valuable 1-0 lead at halftime despite playing down a man. As the game wore on the fresh legs of the South West United team soon began to take advantage as the Swift Current eleven began to control more of the play. With Yorkton down to ten men and tired legs the South West United squad had the clear upper hand over the physically taxed Fury. South West United were able to take advantage of the Fury's physical fatigue and put two past the keeper to go up 2-1 and put Yorkton firmly against the wall with tired legs and spirits. Late in the half Yorkton made a gritty push as Derek Campbell continued his stellar weekend and scored twice to give Yorkton the lead in a very tough and very impressive 3-2 Fury victory to end the weekend. The win after overcoming all of the obstacles faced over the weekend gave the YUFC Fury high spirits. "It was a great effort by the boys. They were out of gas but not out of heart and that's something that you just can't coach. We didn't make it to the tournament final but the boys truly played like champions this weekend," finished Grodzinski.
