LAC LA BICHE - The Portage College men's futsal team couldn't roll their regional championship ranking into a provincial championship — but they took a good kick at it, says coach Kika Mukuninwa.
The team took their undefeated regional record from the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference playdowns to the provincial championships, hosted at The Kings University in Edmonton at the end of March, but came away without a win. Portage was one of four men's futsal teams representing the ACAC's four provincial regions. The Portage women's futsal team didn't make it to the championship round.
Futsal is indoor soccer, played five-aside with no sideboards. Portage is a relatively new team to the league, but is already a respected group, says the coach.
"This was really our first official season in futsal. Before that we were playing some exhibition, and then we stopped because of COVID — so this has been a really good start for us," Mukuninwa said, explaining that the recent championships featured teams from much larger schools and larger drawing areas like Lethbridge and SAIT. "We played against the biggest schools in the league, and we played well. I'm very pleased with our guys and the effort they put in."
Mukuninwa said the men were part of a championship level of opponents and despite their winless record in the finals, they should be very proud to have been playing at that level.
"Everyone there was a champion of a provincial region, so there were no bad teams," the coach said.
To make it to the provincial championships, the Voyageurs beat their conference opponents from Keyano College and Lakeland College in playdown games held in February. Heading into the recent championships, the Voyageurs had a tough start against the Lethbridge Kodiaks, going into the second half of play down 6-2. The Voyageurs fought back in the second half, but lost the game 7-4. Their second game against the host team TKU Eagles didn't go as planned with the Portage crew being blanked 5-0, facing 38 shots, but generating only 26 scoring chances themselves. The Voyageurs lost their third game of the competition 6-1 to the SAIT Trojans. The Voyageurs faced Lethbridge in what would end up being the final game of the season — but their best of the championships. Because there were only four teams in the championship round the game against Lethbridge was for the bronze medal, and it took an overtime period to award that medal to the Lethbridge team.
That final game, said Mukuninwa, was a great showcase of the Portage team's talent. Both teams were tied at two going into the second half of regular time play. With just a few seconds left on the clock at the end of the second half, the Voyageurs were actually in the lead 3-2, but a late penalty gave Lethbridge the tying goal on a free kick. Overtime in futsal is made up of two, five-minute overtime periods. The Voyageurs scored the go-ahead goal in the first half of overtime, and carried the lead into the dying minute of the second half — only to have back-to-back penalty calls result in two penalty kicks ... and two goals... for Lethbridge. The final was a 5-4 loss for the Voyageurs.
"We kind of robbed ourselves in that one," said Mukuninwa, saying that not only the penalties, but a number of cross-bars and missed chances, lead to the outcome.
The coach and the team remain positive and are already looking to the next season of the college's outdoor and indoor soccer programs.
"We'll have returning players. I expect most from futsal will return for our outdoor team this year," he said.
Team officials on the men's and women's sides are actively recruiting and scouting new team talent, says the coach, adding that the success of the futsal team will help to draw attention to the Portage community.
"Our goal for the school and the team is to get the most skilled and dedicated student athletes," Mukuninwa said.
The ACAC outdoor soccer season begins on September 10 this year. Mukuninwa says both the Voyageur men's and women's teams are expected to be top contenders in athletic programs that continue to improve every year.
