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Kings get record win to vault up standings

The Red Deer College Kings cracked open the record book as they took over second place in the south division of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men’s soccer.With a little help from the Lakeland Rustlers (6-0-1), the Kings (3-1-3) jumped over the SAIT Trojans (3-2-1) and the Medicine Hat Rattlers (3-2-2) with an 11-0 win over the Olds College Broncos (0-6-0) in Red Deer.
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Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate Staff

Kings 11, Broncos 0

The Red Deer College Kings cracked open the record book as they took over second place in the south division of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men’s soccer.

With a little help from the Lakeland Rustlers (6-0-1), the Kings (3-1-3) jumped over the SAIT Trojans (3-2-1) and the Medicine Hat Rattlers (3-2-2) with an 11-0 win over the Olds College Broncos (0-6-0) in Red Deer.

The win was the largest for RDC since 1990 (online ACAC records do not go back further) and the fourth largest in the league over that span.

The Kings’ previous mark was a 9-1 win over the Lethbridge College Kodiaks on Sept. 29, 2012.

“Our biggest thing at half time was not to get complacent,” said Kings head coach Steve Fullarton. “You would think with the score the way it was (5-0) it would be a nice and easy halftime, but instead we gave them a bit of a roasting to make sure they stayed focused and didn’t get into any bad habits.”

RDC got two goals from each from Andrew Jevne, Chase Grenier and Mark Ibbotson while Eric Gopel, Alex Ingraham, William Vasquez and Bruno Damian also scored once. Luke Owen out up the clean sheet but was hardly tested. Josh Riddley gave up all 11 goals for Olds.

The Kings also picked up a single point in Saturday’s 4-4 tie with SAIT, who lost 2-0 to Lakeland on Sunday, to go from fourth to second with three games to go in the regular season. The top three teams from each division advance to the championship tournament.

The biggest margins of victory in the ACAC since 1990 has been a trio of 12-0 games, Mount Royal over RDC on Sept. 24, 1994, Mount Royal over Keyano on Sept. 12, 2004, and NAIT over Grand Prairie on Sept. 24, 2005.

The Kings built a 5-0 lead at half time and did their best to remain focused in the second half while getting in their bench.

“It was a good opportunity to keep everyone on their toes,” said Fullarton. “It’s always good to get everyone on the field and get them a bit of playing time because you never know when you’re going to need them.”

Grenier was named the Kings player of the game while Dallas Hayes took the honour for Olds.

In Saturday’s match, Ibbotson scored twice for RDC while Kirk Moody and Alim Hirji added single goals.

Queens 1, Broncos 0

The RDC Queens earned six points out of their two weekend games, but they were far from perfect.

In a pair of 1-0 home games, they swept SAIT (3-2-1) and Olds (0-5-1), but the scores should have been a lot higher for the Queens (4-2-1).

Kaitlin D’Arcy got the lone goal for Red Deer in Saturday’s win over the Trojans and Celine Jensen scored in a win over the Broncos on Sunday.

After a sloppy first half on Sunday, RDC took over against Olds and quite likely should have put a six up on the scoreboard, but hit posts or narrowly missed open nets. It took until the 82nd minute for Jensen to break the deadlock.

“The first half was awful, we couldn’t put two passes together ... everything was bad,” said Queens head coach Dave Colley. “We had a little chat at half time ... we came out and the play changed completely. We came out and everything was so much better.”

It was a game that could have gone sideways if Olds caught a break.

“You do have games like that, but the one thing I know about this team is they do never give up,” said Colley. “They might not play as well as they can but they go right to the 90th minute.”

RDC also suffered a major loss in their win over the Broncos as star goalie Lauren Good was ejected after getting into a fight with Broncos striker Jessica Small with about a minute to go in the game.

Good lost her cool after getting run by Small for the second time in the half, this time Small appeared to have kicked Good while both were on the ground and to have thrown a punch. Good then retaliated by throwing several punches of her own.

The red card for a violent act carries with it an automatic four-game ban, and with three games to go until playoffs it is a major blow to the Queens back end. Second year goalie Vanessa Lee now takes over as starter.

“I can’t condone it, but I’ve been there myself, and if someone punches you — especially if they’ve just slid in with their cleats and got you — it’s real hard not to respond,” said Colley. “We had a little chat in there about a team that has nothing to lose and a team that hopefully is going to the playoffs and we have to be smart. We need to really bite our tongue and lay on the ground. I know it’s a soccer thing to lay on the ground, but in that situation, laying on the ground and waiting for the ref to sort it out would be the thing to do.”

RDC is in Calgary on Saturday this weekend and Olds on Sunday.