The Yorkton United U14 boys鈥� soccer team had a busy weekend travelling to Prince Albert and Saskatoon for a pair of games.
On Saturday Yorkton United made the long trek to Prince Albert to take on the Prince Albert Celtics in Saskatchewan Premier Soccer League (SPSL) action where they handed the hosts a 9-0 shellacking.
Nick Fetsch led the offensive onslaught on Saturday with a quartet of goals while Finlay Hart also found the score sheet multiple times putting the ball past the Celtic keeper twice in the victory.
Single markers were registered by Teijon Abel-Douglas, Nic Nesseth and Matthew Cochrane while Austin Stewart picked up his fourth clean sheet of the campaign.
Head coach Steven DeLong said that the 9-0 result was largely due to the experience factor, noting Prince Albert is a relatively young team, while also saying that his squad played exceptionally well. 鈥淭he boys were excellent in moving the ball and we really picked them apart and cruised to an easy win,鈥� mentioned DeLong, adding that Fetsch really benefitted from the time and space he was afforded. 鈥淲hen he gets some open space he鈥檚 very dangerous and he showed that today.鈥�
United followed Saturday鈥檚 commanding 9-0 win in Prince Albert up with a tough 2-1 defeat to top of the table Lakewood Atletico in Saskatoon on Sunday in which two defensive lapses resulted in both of Lakewood鈥檚 goals. 鈥淲e made two really poor defensive errors and they scored twice,鈥� suggested DeLong, continuing, 鈥渨e went down 1-0, then Nick Fetsch scored to tie it up.
鈥淭hen we made another error and they scored then we spent the whole second half trying to come back and they defended well with their goalie making two or three big saves and we just never were able to tie it up.鈥�
DeLong said that the two goals were definitely preventable, but also said that Lakewood defended well once they regained their lead. 鈥淭hey played a solid game and in the end they weren鈥檛 100% defensively but they didn鈥檛 make any big mistakes,鈥� DeLong said of his clubs鈥� Sunday afternoon foes. 鈥淭hey defended hard and we still worked for every chance we got but in the end we made those two errors, lost focus for a few seconds and it cost us and at this level you can鈥檛 make those mistakes.鈥�
But with mistakes comes lessons and DeLong said that the team will be working harder than ever in practice to ensure that something like that does not happen again. 鈥淚 think the boys know what it takes now despite their little slip up today and I think they鈥檙e going to learn from this,鈥� mentioned the head coach. 鈥淭he boys know how much work it takes to succeed in this league and I think they鈥檙e willing to put that into each practice and each game so that we don鈥檛 lose like this again.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton United U14 boys鈥� team will be on the weekend of July 11 and 12 when they welcome a pair of Regina teams to Yorkton for their final two regular season games. On Saturday United takes on second place FC Regina with a win moving the two clubs even in the standings.
Sunday sees United welcome fourth place QC United. Both games begin at 3:00p.m. at the Parkland Mall soccer field.
