Sweet Feet dance to back-to-back Keith Sykes Memorial titles in gritty final against Kroos Control
It was a fiercely paced final, and that’s exactly how Hugh Lehr remembers his time on the pitch against Keith Sykes.
Lehr helped organize the weekend’s seven-a-side Keith Sykes Memorial soccer tournament at Crescent Heights High School, named in the memory of his former rival and teammate. While the title slipped away from the local Kroos Control squad in a 3-2 thriller against Calgary’s Sweet Feet, Lehr says it was played the way Sykes would have liked.
“Keith and I were rivals. We played against each other all the time. It was a healthy rivalry, but as we got older we started playing together,” said Lehr, adding the tournament brought multiple generations of Medicine Hat’s soccer community to the pitch. “Just to see all these kids out watching soccer in Medicine Hat is a great thing. And the U17 ( (Rattlers Athletic Soccer Club) team won the consolation C final. We’ve got youth coming up here looking to develop and play soccer which is exciting.”
Sweet Feet raised the cup for the second year in a row on the heels of Houcem Elmaaoui’s second-half game-winner, though Elmaaoui admits the local squad gave them a good run for the title.
“It was a tight game so we couldn’t really attack, we had to come back and defend more. So that’s what we did, we had to defend to get the win,” said Elmaaoui, who won the tournament’s golden boot for most goals on the weekend. “We just moved the ball, kept the ball moving.”
Kroos Control came within one strike of forcing extra time thanks to goals from Thomas Hammerton and Forkpa Sumo, but the Rattlerbased squad couldn’t sneak another one past Sweet Feet goalkeeper Joel Nuss.
“Good side, good final and overall for us a good weekend,” said Kroos Control’s Allan Siwela. “We’ve got some current Rattlers and exRattler alumni with the addition of Thomas Hammerton from the U of L. It’s a good group of guys and it’s nice to play with each other again.”
The Rattlers under-18 squad defeated the PED Griffins in the C final and Lakeland picked up the B final victory with a win over Ralston.