Juventus 2 Renegades 0
It’s been a long season for the Red Deer Renegades and it may have caught up to them a bit at the provincial U14 tier II girls’ soccer championships at Edgar Park.
The Renegades gave up a pair of second-half goals and couldn’t find the extra gear late a they dropped a 2-0 decision to the Calgary Hamptons Juventus in the gold medal match Sunday afternoon.
“The girls have played about 50 games this summer, which is a lot, and I think they ran out of steam a bit,” said Renegades head coach Paul Morigeau. “But don’t take anything away from the Calgary girls. They have a good team.
“They also have a lot of second-year players, while three-quarters of our team is made up of first-year players. So there’s a difference in size, kicking ability and strength on the ball. They pushed us off the ball a lot.”
The Renegades played in the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association, finishing in a tie for third. They also travelled to Los Angeles and won a Disneyland international tournament, plus 90 per cent of the team competed in the Alberta Summer Games.
“So you add it all up and that’s a lot of soccer,” said Morigeau, who also practised three to four times a week.
“We picked the team with the goal of attending the nationals (next year), so we wanted a group to stay together, practise a lot and go to tournaments. And I couldn’t be more pleased with the girls.”
The Renegades had the wind in the first half Sunday and controlled play, but couldn’t break through.
“We had three breakaways, but just couldn’t handle the ball, while they put their chances away,” explained Morigeau, who has Rick Friedl as assistant coach. “But overall there wasn’t much between the two teams.”
The Edmonton West Raiders took bronze with a 1-0 win over Edmonton Inter.
On the boys’ side, the Edmonton Xtreme edged the Edmonton Internazionale 3-2 in the final while the Calgary PSA Athletics stopped the Calgary Blizzard Storm 5-1 to win bronze.
The Red Deer Renegades dropped a 6-5 shoot out decision to the Medicine Hat Crusaders in the seventh-place match. The teams were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation. Jeremiah Huo and Owen Smith scored for Red Deer.
• The Renegades needed a shoot out to stop the Sherwood Park Phoenix 2-1 in the bronze medal game in the U12 Tier II girls’ division at the McLean fields. The teams were tied 0-0 after regulation.
The Edmonton West Raiders downed the Calgary Blizzard 2-1 in the final.
• In the U12 Tier I competition both Red Deer teams finished fifth.
The Renegades downed the Phoenix 5-1 in the boys’ category as Ajdin Sarcevic scored twice and Amer Halilic, Alex Moore and Antonio Suhalj once each.
The Red Deer girls edged the Phoenix 2-1 on goals by Kiera Fujimoto and Madison Berry.
Calgary NSD Celtic stooped Calgary Villains 2-0 in the boys’ final with Edmonton Inter 98 taking a 4-1 decision from Edmonton West Warriors in the third-place match.
The girls’ title went to Calgary Blizzard Celtic with a 5-1 win over Edmonton Xtreme. Edmonton Juventus stopped Calgary Chinook 2-1 in the bronze medal contest.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com