Crowsnest Pass takes Gold at U14 tournament in Pincher Creek

Stephen puts in his all for Elkford

Toni Lucas

The same weekend the World Cup soccer was held in Brazil, Pincher Creek hosted not one, but two simultaneous soccer tournaments, for U18 and U14 teams. The U14 tournament was held on two separate pitches between 4 teams: Pincher Creek, Sparwood, Elkford and Crowsnest Pass. The wet weather marked the first four games of the day, with the sun coming out and smiling on the final two games.  Sparwood and Crowsnest Pass vied for gold and silver at Matthew Halton School, and at the pool field Pincher Creek and Elkford vied for bronze.


In the third place game, the Pincher Creek team was a little more aggressive than their Elkford counterparts. Pincher Creek looked good for their last game of the day. There was good passing and no shortage of goals with the final score being 5-2 for Pincher.

"The kids have been having fun," said U14 Elkford Coach Mark Spittael. "We struggle in that age group to find people to play. We are topping the team up with U12's. We have 5 U12's out there today, so we did pretty good."

"Pincher had a good group of kids this year," said organizer and referee Kelly Lincez. "I reffed all the teams this year, and it was good soccer. Everybody was trying, it was a good effort. I'm happy with it."

Pincher Creek keeper Jordan Hochstein 

Pincher Creek U14 players Jordon Hochstein and Liam VanEe are moving up to U16 next season. "It'll be fun, I played with them last year and this year anyways, in tournaments," said Hochstein. VanEe is looking forward to moving up, and hopes to be able to contribute as a keeper.  "It's fun, "said VanEe about the joy of playing soccer.

Crowsnest Pass was triumphed over Sparwood to take first place in the tournament. "The final score was one-nil, as it should have been. It was outstanding," said Crowsnest Pass Assistant Coach Michael Duarte-Pedsora. He shared that the single point of the game was scored in the last 5 minutes, creating incredible tension throughout the game. "The final game was the two teams that had the toughest times beating each other. So it worked out that the team that we played against today was the team we should have played, and we prevailed. It was awesome. All of the teams did really well this year. It was very close, and all of the teams were very strong."