Keyano and Lakeland Win 2013 Alberta Colleges Futsal Titles

Huskies and Rustlers clinch ACAC titles. Brady and Wagner named Coaches of the Year. All Conference selections announced.

By: Curtis J Philips (ACAC Staff Writer)

03/17/2013 – Olds, Alberta – When you believe in yourself, your teammates and your coach…great things may happen.

Hence the gold medal win for the Keyano Huskies men’s futsal team earlier today in Olds winning 5-1 against the Lakeland Rustlers.

Striker Alex Eby (Human Resource) had four goals to lead the team while teammate Santiago Raigoza (Business Admin) had one.

“It’s absolutely fantastic the greatest feeling ever,” said Huskies coach Connor Brady of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC) banner, the first in the school’s 27-year history for team sports. “We trained hard all year and became like a family. They came out and although they may have been the best-skilled team here, at the end of the day they also had the most heart.”

Huskies came into the three-day four-game championships with a perfect record of 10-0 with 48 goals for and only 16 against.

They opened Thursday with a 7-2 thrashing of the Red Deer Kings with ACAC Male Futsal Player of the Year Jonatton Cordoba (Human Resource) striking for the Texas hat trick with five goals. Raigoza added two.

“The boys came together really well for the first game,” said Brady, who was also selected ACAC Men’s Futsal Coach of the Year.

Game 2 would find their winning streak of 11 come to an end with a 2-2 tie against the Medicine Hat Rattlers Saturday.

“It was a great game and I give credit to Medicine Hat as they are a real young classy team,” said Brady, a former Huskies outdoor soccer player (2005-2007), now in his first year as coach for both the Huskies indoor and outdoor men’s soccer program.

Rattlers up 2-0 at the half, Huskies came back to tie the game with scores by defender Marcos Betioli (Business Admin) and Eby.

“I told the boys to stay calm and relaxed and their (Rattlers) goalie stood on his head.”

In their second ACAC contest of the day, the Huskies downed the Rustlers 7-1 with balanced scoring.

Huskies ACAC All Conference members include Betioli, Cordoba, Eby, Raigoza and goalie Vahan Ercoban (Power Engineering).

Of his Coach of the Year status, Brady said, “It was the furthest thing from my mind as I was concentrating on coaching the boys to a win. Now when I have time to think back, it is a great honour to be chosen from amongst a great group of coaches. It is a bench mark in my coaching career.”

Of his emotions when the final buzzer sounded, Brady responded: “We had the talent and skills to move the ball as a lot of our players have futsal backgrounds. This was a long time coming especially for Santiago and I felt so good for him. It was a touching moment.”

Other members of the gold medal team are Yves-Florent Pokou and Will Sedonick-Carriere.

The bronze medal was won by Medicine Hat Rattlers 5-3 over Red Deer Kings.

Lakeland Rustlers Win Women’s Futsal

Lakeland Rustlers won the gold medal in women’s futsal defeating the Medicine Hat Rattlers 3-2.
Rustlers, coached by Kevin Wagner, who also coached the men’s side, entered the tournament with an impressive record of nine wins and one loss with 32 goals for and only 10 against.

In their opening match of the final tournament they defeated the Keyano Huskies 4-0.

In Game 2 and Game 3 they tied Red Deer Queens 1-1 and the Rattlers 2-2.

“The main thing for us was that we played well against Keyano in our first game and then the game against Red Deer was not one of our better performances as we seemed a little bit nervous,” said Wagner. “We knew we were in the final then and so we were trying to get through without injury.”

In the Rattlers tie the Rustlers midfielder Tessa Lay “tweaked” her knee said Wagner so some of their main offensive power was now lost.

“It wasn’t worth risking any further possible damage until she was properly diagnosed,” said Wagner of Lay. “She is a main player so it helped our girls learn on the mental side. Will losing one of their better players cause them to lose confidence or would they come together as a team?”
The injury big came into factor in the championships as a chronic hip ailment affected Rustlers goalie Jacetta Johnson .

“We had to make a decision,” said Wagner.  “We had already called one time out to see if we could pop in back in place. But she seemed to be able to put it in place but it still at times seemed to cause her problems and she b stuck it our mentally. She wanted to make sure she finished off her ACAC career with a gold medal.”

Kayla Ahenakew-Wegner led the Rustlers with two goals in the final.

Mens Coach of the Year: Connor Brady

Womens Coach of the Year: Kevin Wagner

Womens First Team All Conference Selections

Lisa Harrison (Keyano)
Tessa Lay (Lakeland)
Alexandra Moyer (Red Deer)
Kiara Stasiuk (Lakeland)
April Weigelt (Keyano)

Mens First Team All Conference Selections

Braydon Bretzer (Lakeland)
Jonatton Cordoba (Keyano)
Santiago Raigoza (Keyano)
Allan Siwela (MHC)
Cam Wallace (Ambrose)