The Bonnyville U12 boys indoor soccer team continued their season's success, sweeping both games at the Lakeland Cup.
“Overall I think they just showed how good they are and that they deserved to win. They had a great year, went undefeated in the league, and at the Lakeland Cup they just put it all together. Kind of got caught up in the moment sometimes, but they were able to get the job done,” said coach Mike Pomerleau.
On Feb. 25-26, Cold Lake Minor Soccer Association hosted the annual tournament at the Energy Centre. In day one action, on Saturday, Bonnyville went up against Cold Lake's U12 team, coming away with a 9-1 victory.
“I thought in the first game they were moving the ball really well and finding the net a lot,” Pomerleau noted.
In game two of the day for the Bonnyville U12 boys, they beat Lac La Biche 4-0. While they had a little slower of a start to the game, only leading by one, a strong defence and persistent offence brought them the win.
“I thought they defended really well the second game, and our goalie made some great saves. He kept us in the game for a large chunk,” explained Pomerleau. “The guys finally were able to get that second goal and were able to open the flood gates and put a couple more in.”
Bringing home the gold with six points on the weekend, the Bonnyville U12 boys will now be headed to the Slush Cup this weekend in Edmonton. According to Pomerleau they'll use this opportunity to fine tune their game ahead of the team's March 17-19 provincial run in Calgary.
“We're going to try and clean up a couple things that are bugging us. We're still having trouble getting the ball out of our end and we know the competition is going to be tougher now... We have a pretty decent group that I think can win; we just have to clean up the little things and hopefully that gets the job done.”
U14, U16 teams fall into the last spot
The Bonnyville U14 team didn't fair quite as well in the weekend's matches, taking losses in all three of their games. However, for a young team with a number of girls playing in the boys' league, Pomerleau was still pleased with their performance.
“They're learning. They've had issues all year and we had to change things up this weekend to help us out, but we still couldn't hit the net and had trouble defending... It happens sometimes where things don't go their way, but I'm still proud of how they did overall.”
In their first game, versus Cold Lake two, Bonnyville fell 11-1. This was followed by a 9-3 loss to Cold Lake one, and a 9-2 loss to Lac La Biche.
The two-day tournament followed suit with how Bonnyville's year had been going. Pomerleau explained it's “been a bit of rebuilding year” for the team, but once they switch to a more defensive style and rotated positions it helped out in their final games.
“They learned a lot this year and they did really well. I'm still happy with how they did.”
The U14 team will also be headed to Edmonton for the Slush Cup this weekend.
Bonnyville's U16 team ended the Lakeland Cup with bronze, unable to grab any points in the tournament. Their day didn't start out as well as hoped for, as they fell 4-3 to Lac La Biche.
