St. Paul's U15 and U19 soccer teams had mixed results during provincials this past weekend, which were held in town. The town was represented well, with two U15 teams, a U19 boys club, and a pair of local girls on Bonnyville's U19 team.
The U15 boys started off with a pair of dominant performances, a 1-0 win over Athabasca and an 8-0 drubbing of the Peace River Strykers.
They were then stunned in the semi-finals, losing a 1-0 heart breaker against Vermillion, who went on to win gold.
Their bronze match against Linden was looking good, as they stormed out to a two-goal lead, before Linden's strong second half saw things squared up at full time.
The teams settled their match in penalty kicks, with St. Paul winning 2-2 (3-2) on penalty kicks to take home the bronze.
Coach Nicolas Lampron discussed the team's performance following the match.
"I think the guys were still disappointed from the semi-finals game. It was hard to get a grip on this game, hard to stay motivated, but all-in-all, we finished with a win, so it's good for the guys."
The U15 girls' team had some struggles during the three days of play.
After picking up a 5-4 nail-biter win against Athabasca, the team dropped their next two matches 7-2 to Whitecourt and 2-1 to Camrose.
They ended the year on a high however, convincingly beating Stettler FC 6-2 to finish fifth in Alberta.
The U19 Bonnyville club had two St. Paul girls on their team, Tanielle Yacy and Nikita Seimers.
The girls placed fourth, after losing their bronze medal match 4-1 to Three Hills. They walked away with one win on the weekend, doubling up the Rocky Knights 4-2.
Lastly, the U19 boys suffered their first loss all season, in the gold medal game against the Lacombe Panthers, by a score of 1-0.
Head coach Maurice Brousseau broke down the match.
"It was tough loss, silver I guess is fine. Lacombe is a great team. We (beat) them in Camrose 1-0 and they beat us here 1-0, so obviously we were evenly matched. They had one good shot that went in, and that was pretty well it."
The game quickly became heated, as the minutes drew on and the game was winding down. A number of players exchanged comments with each other and the referees, as well as ramping up risky tackles.
Brousseau said it's all part of the game.
"Well, in a gold medal game, it's going to be testy. We want the gold rather than the silver. Our boys reacted that way. They wanted that gold. It's frustrating we get this far and it comes down to one shot goes in for them, and none go in for us."
The U13 girls' soccer team also played in provincials over the weekend, heading to Carstairs for the tournament. The team finished in fifth place overall.
"We played the gold medallist Whitecourt for our first match," said coach Richard Smyl. "The ladies stepped up their level of play for the first game knowing that the winner would eventually play for gold."
The final score of the game was 2-1 with three of St. Paul's shots hitting the corner post in the last 10 minutes of play.
"I was very proud of their hard work at provincials," said Smyl.
