Spartans win bronze at zone finals
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
The South Central Zone Boys Soccer Championship took place on June 2, in Strathmore. The games started at 9 a.m. and the finals were held at 4:30 p.m. Strathmore High School, SHS, field, and Parkwood soccer field were tied up for the day to host the games. For their first game of the day the Spartans played against Three Hills, beating them 3–0. The boys had a chance to rest up for their next game which took place against the Canmore Crusaders at 12:30 p.m. It was a close game, staying at a tie until Canmore managed to score the winning point, beating Strathmore 2–1. “I think the teams have been happy with the play. It was a tough tournament for all the teams involved because they were playing back-to-back games,” said assistant coach Wes Clark.
The semifinals saw the Spartans against Okotoks’ Foothill Composite High School, FCHS, at the SHS field and Canmore challenged Chestermere at the Parkwood field. The Spartans lost their third game of the day 2 -0, which qualified them for the bronze medal game. Canmore beat Chestermere 2-1 in their semifinal game. The Chestermere team faced off against the Spartans. Chestermere went into the tournament undefeated all year in their league and the Spartans took that away from them, winning the bronze medal finals with a score of 5-1. Derek Warrack scored three of the five goals and the teams were evenly matched up. All of the games were fairly close.
“The kids from all the teams and the coaches showed good sportsmanship. The teams played hard, and were competitive but not at the expense of their opponent,” said Clark. The Spartans had never played Chestermere before and it was good for the team to meet new opponents. FCHS faced Canmore in the gold medal game, which was sort of a re-match for the two teams. In their league finals game FCHS beat Canmore in a shoot-out, and this time Canmore won the game 1-0.
The Spartans still have their league finals coming up on June 9 in Okotoks.