LAC LA BICHE - It's been a tough season on the scoreboard and in the standings for the Portage College men's and women's soccer teams — but one that has shown a lot of growth, says members of the teams' coaching staff.
Going into their last games of the regular season, both teams were on a nine game losing slide. Overall, the women's team won only one game and tied another in their 11 played. The team only managed one goal through the season, the solo marker coming off forward Chloe Gauthier-Schaub in their 1-0 win on September 10 over Northwest Polytechnic. The men's team won two of their 11 regular season match-ups, and managed to score 14 goals in their tough season.
That's the bad news, says Al Robertson, part of the interim coaching staff that took over the bench roles for the Voyageurs midway through the season after a coaching shake-up. The good news, he said, is the drive and determination of the teams.
“The squads have really started to play well as a team,” Robertson told Lakeland This Week.
In their most recent games — a 2-1 loss for the men's team to the Kings College Eagles on October 15 and a 6-0 loss for the Portage women to the women's Eagles team — there was a lot of opportunity and a lot of skill shown, said Robertson.
“The girls started strong, but went down two goals quickly. They did not let this slow them down, but instead, went on to play their strongest team effort yet,” Robertson said, “They ended up down by five in the first half. They came back strong in the second with two goals for Portage and only one goal against, which was the result of a penalty shot."
The determination of the team has been a constant, said the coach. It's the same story for the men's team. The game against the Eagles was one of their best of the season, despite the loss. The Voyageurs came out strong, scoring the first goals of the game at the 34 minute mark of the first half on a pass from Corwin Shieck to Fiston Kiese, the team's leading goal-scorer who has notched six of the season's 14 scores. The Eagles tied things up late in the half and scored the eventual game-winner with just four minutes of regulation time to play.
Like the women's effort, Robertson said the game was likely the team's best of the season — despite the scoreboard result.
“It was the best display of team work and offensive manoeuvring by the team to date,” he said. "Overall, the games... were well played with improvement shown at every turn.”
Fan support
Another statistic not shown on the scoreboard that Robertson and other members of the coaching staff see as a positive is the average attendance at each Voyageur home game. The team averages at lest 50 fans per game, the second best attendance average in the league, just few dozen behind the Kings College Eagles.
Comments from the last game of the season, an overall reaction to the season and a look-forward to next year will follow the results of the final weekend games.
Only the top three teams from each of the north and south divisions of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference move onto the playoff round. The Voyageurs went into their final game of the regular season in sixth place of the seven-team northern zone, three points up on Northwest Polytechnic. The Portage men's team finished in fifth place of their seven-team division.
