HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L.
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
CANADA
What a successful weekend of soccer for the Under 14 Boys Team from Happy Valley-Goose Bay competing in the Newfoundland & Labrador Soccer Association All Star Soccer Tournaments.
The Under 14 Boys travelled across to Grand Falls for the Mega style Tournament where they played in two preliminary qualifying games, winning each of them convincingly 14-0 and 12-0 respectively, which was used to determine their seeding for the Group Stage.
Dagan Kelly, coach of the Under 14 Boys told the Labradorian that after the preliminary games, the team was ranked number one in A Division, and were scheduled to play against Conception Bay North and Labrador City who finished were ranked two and three respectively in the A Division.
“The team played exceptional in the preliminary games, but didn’t know what to expect when we had to come up against the other two teams. After a strong warm up, I knew the team was ready to go and we ended up beating Labrador City eight to nothing”, said Kelly.
“In our second game, it was Conception Bay North that scored first. This was the first time our players had gone behind in the Tournament and we could see that this affected them. We brought the players in, re grouped and settled them down and got them playing the style of game that they trained for. We ended up winning four goals to one.”
With the completion of the A Division round games, Happy Valley-Goose Bay finished top of the group with Conception Bay North finishing in second place which pitted them both against each other in a re-match for the Championship on Sunday morning
In what was a ‘back and forth match’ with Conception Bay North opening up with the first goal to make it 1-0, only to be equalised by Happy Valley-Goose Bay, this scoring pattern continued with the score line being 2 goals each heading into late in the second half. With approximately three minutes left to play in the match, Matthew Bowles scored the winning goal for Happy Valley-Goose Bay to make it three goals to two victory.
“We really have a deep pool of soccer talent in Goose Bay, its good, we are competing well with the other communities, showing that we can compete at a Provincial level. We took along seventeen players with all of them getting equal playing time. The kids played phenomenal, they played as a group and supported each other”, said Kelly.
Matthew Bowles was awarded the ‘Player of the Game’ Award for the Championship match, with the Tournament MVP going to Matthew Cornect, Most Sportsman Like Player awarded to Adam Kelly and the ‘Hard Hat Award’ given to Luke Chubbs.
