Kodiaks eyeing up second
The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s soccer team have put themselves in prime position to lock up second place in the South.
Heading into the last weekend of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular season, the Kodiaks beat the Red Deer Kings 3-1 Saturday afternoon at the Servus Sports Centre.
The win not only gives the Kodiaks payback following a 32 loss to the Kings Sept. 23 in Red Deer, but more importantly, improves Lethbridge 7-3-1 and moves them two points ahead of the Kings (6-3-2) for second place in the ACAC South Division.
Who gets the second seed behind the undefeated SAIT Trojans (12-0) will be decided today as the Kodiaks host the Lakeland Rustlers at 2 p.m. at the Servus Sports Centre and the Kings head down the road to Medicine to tangle with the 4-6-1 Rattlers.
“I thought it was a heck of a game,” said Kodiak James Britton, who scored what stood up as the game-winner in the 62nd minute. “The boys were together and we all battled hard. We didn’t finish our chances in the first half. But in the second half we all came together and we buried our chances. We just ended up finishing our opportunities and scored some goals.”
It only took the Kings a little over 11 minutes to take a 1-0 lead on a goal from Matthew Elphick, but the hosts owned the scoresheet the rest of the way.
Lethbridge’s Taylor Laviolette evened the score a little over seven minutes after Elphick’s goal for a 1-1 draw at the half.
It stayed that way until just past the 60th minute when Britton handed the Kodiaks a 2-1 lead.
Then in the final minutes, Lethbridge’s Wilson Ntignee was awarded a penalty shot he didn’t miss to round out the scoring.
At the other end, Kodiaks goaltender Kohl Wandyka made four saves.
“We challenged the boys about trying to get a six or seven-game winning streak. You do that, you’re in nationals,” said Kodiaks head coach Sean Carey. “That’s the kind of thing we're looking at, one game at a time. But they want second as much is anybody else, so they’re going to leave everything out there on the field and they did today. They battled hard. It was a similar game to what we played up in Red Deer where we dominated the first half and in the second half they came on a little bit. But we stayed with it. We talked about patience at half time and just waiting until the chances arrive and when they came we had a few little things that we picked up on with their team that we talked about. We knew that if we get some good opportunities on net we have to follow them in and that’s what happened with James’ goal.”
The Kodiaks put 13 shots on goal compared to the Kings five.
“Overall I thought we were the better team,” said Carey. We definitely merited the three points, for sure. That was welldeserved on our end and we thought we should’ve gotten three points in Red Deer when we played up there.
It’s also the first time since 2015 both the men’s and women’s Kodiaks qualified for provincials.
“It’s huge for our program,” said Carey. “We talked this as coaches that we’re here for a while. We want to build a legacy at this college and we want to make sure it’s a place where people want to come and play. We want to make sure it’s a place where we’re successful
and the girls and guys that come here to go away with a great experience. Moving forward it’s a start. When we’re recruiting this off-season we can say ‘We made playoffs last year and we made playoffs for the boys the year before and we’re on a good roll to get to the final six.’ It’s a big feat for both programs right now. They’ve worked their butts off and you know what? They got what they deserved.” Follow @DWoodard on Twitter