Last year was not a good one for the Yorkton United U14 boys鈥� team.
In their inaugural season in the Saskatchewan Premier Soccer League (SPSL) the U14 boys were pushed around, finishing with just four points on one win and one draw, giving them a record of 1-12-1 in the 14-game season.
But that was last year. This year the U14 boys of Yorkton United got off on the right foot, trouncing Queen City United 5-0 in their first game of the season on the road at Regina鈥檚 Optimist Park before being blanked by FC Regina 3-0 on a blustery Sunday afternoon.
Carson Sveinbjornson opened the scoring for United in their season opening victroy quickly followed by a strike off the foot of Damon Schwartz that made it 2-0 for the visitors.
Dami Ogunbiyi 鈥� one of last season鈥檚 offensive workhorses 鈥� made it 3-0 with his first of what surely will be many on the season before Nick Fetsch and Amogh Tripathy rounded out the scoring for Yorkton United to make it a 5-0 final. 鈥淭he boys showed that this is their second year in the highest level and they weren鈥檛 overwhelmed by it,鈥� said United U14 bench boss Steven DeLong. 鈥淲e were playing a team that will be in the same situation as our boys were last year because they were quite young.
鈥淪o with our boys being second years with experience in this league, that experience kicked in and we got off on the right foot for the season.鈥�
DeLong said he was also happy with the way the offence came in the first game of the season, noting how it wasn鈥檛 just one or two players that scored. 鈥淲e had five different goal scorers and I think that is a testament to our offensive ability,鈥� mentioned DeLong, adding that he feels that his team also has two of the best strikers in the league as well. 鈥淒ami (Ogunbiyi) and Nick (Fetsch) are strong offensive players and are probably the two best strikers in this league, so offensively we should be strong this year.鈥�
Unfortunately for United U14 their high powered offence simply did not show up in their second game of the season resulting in a 3-0 shutout defeat at the hands of FC Regina. 鈥淲e just weren鈥檛 as strong in the second game as we were in the first game,鈥� said DeLong, continuing, 鈥渨e made a few mistakes and they punished us and scored and when they made mistakes we didn鈥檛 take advantage of it.
鈥淲e had some chances to score and we didn鈥檛, but that being said we just weren鈥檛 at our best. I think playing the day before plays into that but when you come out and don鈥檛 play your toughest you鈥檙e always going to struggle.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton United U14 boys鈥� soccer team will be Saturday, June 13 when they host the Prince Albert Celtics in their home opener.
