The Vernon Tolko United U13 Boys fell 2-1 to the Calgary Villains in Easter Sunday’s thrilling gold-medal final of the Lake Country Okanagan Youth Soccer Icebreaker.
Jonathan Fraser-Monroe and Justin Ruscheinsky shared keeper gloves for the entire tournament and recorded some huge stops against the Villains.
Calgary took an early lead on a penalty kick and despite a strong pushback by Vernon, the Villians connected with a second goal. Vernon attempted a comeback with Alexander Jones finding the net.
United went unbeaten in preliminary play and their overall tournament MVP was Marcus Petersen.
In Game 1 on Good Friday, Tolko brushed back Kelowna Arruda 4-1 on snipes from Marcus Erho, Landon Janke, Kolby Thorpe and Cash Anderson. Kelowna selected Petersen as Man of the Match.
Vernon then shut down the Calgary MSB United Destroyers 2-0 with offence provide by Cam Acob and Jonah Strachan. Game MVP went to Liam Collins.
Alex Kazimer took MVP as Vernon ambushed Prince George 7-0 Saturday afternoon, goals coming from Zach Loland, Owen Challen, Tate Garrod, Anderson, Janke, Thorpe and Erho.
United U14 Boys finished fourth, falling 3-1 to the Nelson Selects in the bronze-medal match. Taylor Halloran converted on a rebound from Quinn Soon, assisted by Owen Davis.
Vernon opened by losing 4-2 to Nelson with Ashton Kamaryk and Dominic Peterson, on a beauty penalty kick, supplying goals in support of a solid Gage Stoll in net.
Davis had Vernon’s goal in a 5-1 loss to the Kamloops Blaze Orange, assisted by Tanner Lapp.
Vernon persevered Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 win over the Kamloops Blaze Blue. A goal on a set piece by Kamaryk and Lapp sent Vernon into the finals.
The U11 Vernon United Boys had an exciting and challenging outing at the Icebreaker with all the players showing grit and determination in every game.
United opened with an early Friday tilt, losing 5-3 to Kelowna United, who had defeated Vernon 5-2 in league play five days earlier. Charlie Erickson pocketed MVP.
In Saturday games, United fell 5-2 to Nelson and 5-2 to McKenzie United, giving up early goals in both outings. Ethan Nickoli and Alex Sewell were the respective MVPs.
The consolation game on Easter Sunday saw Vernon lose 3-1 to Okanagan Mission despite encountering several marvellous scoring chances, including a missed penalty kick. James Lockwood, who had goals in every tourney game, was MVP.
Dane Beaton and Luka Romero were bold on defence, keeper Lyndon Carleton was the tournament MVP (as picked by the coaches) and Alistair Meyer played double-duty as central defender and keeper. William Russell and William Erickson kept the opposition defence guessing, running the wings and feeding balls all day long, and Griffin Trickey was a rock as central holding midfielder.
“I’m really proud of the players for their efforts and never giving up, regardless of the score,” said coach James Lockwood. “And the parents were really supportive and vocal throughout the weekend.
“We kinda fell apart in the transition when we went from the attack to defence, or vice versa, we didn’t react fast enough and gave the other teams too much time and too much space. These players have the skills, the talent and the determination to do very well, but it was the little things that wore us down this weekend. There are great things coming from this group.”