Two soccer teams, a pair of medals and a berth in the upcoming BC provincial championships, a program-first.
Those are the accomplishments of the Langley Fundamental Titans boys soccer program from last week’s Fraser Valley championships.
The Titans Grade 8/9 boys came up short in the Fraser Valley final, conceding a late second-half goal to fall 1-0 to the Earl Marriott Mariners in the gold medal match.
It was played last Thursday (Nov. 10) at Surrey’s Newton Athletic Park.
And a few hours later, at the same park, the Titans senior boys prevailed 2-1 in overtime to best the Sands Scorpions in the Fraser Valley 2A bronze medal game.
Eric Aujla scored the winner in the first overtime period with the Titans defending well in the second period to preserve the victory.
Win or lose, the team had already qualified for next week’s BC provincial championships, which run Nov. 21 to 23 at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex.
“It is a pretty young team, the majority of the players are Grade 11,” said Fundy coach Tamera Shearon.
“I thought if we could hold our team together, we could do pretty well.”
At the junior level last year, the Titans had won bronze at the Fraser Valley championships, so Shearon knew they possessed the talent.
“The goal was just to get to Fraser Valleys,” she said.
“And then in Fraser Valleys, I wasn’t sure (but) the dream is always to get to provincials.”
Shearon said a top three finish in the Langley Division would have been a good start, but the Titans did even better, cruising to top spot thanks to a 7-1-0 record.
The team scored 36 goals while conceding just 11.
Seeded second for the Fraser Valleys, the Titans opened with a 3-1 win over St. John Brebeuf in the quarter-finals before losing 2-0 to Archbishop Carney in the semifinals.
With the tournament being a double knockout format, the Titans were still alive for one of the four berths to provincials but they fell behind 2-0 in the second half to top-ranked Abbotsford Traditional.
Fundy went into attack mode and were rewarded with three goals in a six-minute span, tacking on one more to win 4-2 and advancing the team to the bronze medal game.
Silver lining for 8/9 team
The Titans had cruised through the regular season, winning the East Division with a 6-0-0 record, scoring 36 goals and conceding just a pair.
That impressive record gave Fundy the top seed for Fraser Valleys but the team got a scare in the quarter-finals, needing overtime to defeat Semiahmoo 4-3.
In the semifinals, Fundy found itself down 1-0 at the half to Sullivan Heights but the Titans scored twice in the second half for the 2-1 victory.
In the championship final, Earl Marriott struck for the game’s only goal with about a dozen minutes to play and the Titans could not muster any response.
“It was a very good season (but) always heartbreaking to lose,” Shearon said.
The coach said gold was a realistic possibility at the start, especially with a strong core of Grade 9s who played last season at the junior level.
“We (just) didn’t know what it would be like to play against some of those big schools,” Shearon said.
“Once you hit those Surrey AAA schools, it is a lot harder games.”
Gary Ahuja Langley Times
Langley Fundamental Titans’ Jacob Sol (right) goes airborne in pursuit of the ball during Fraser Valley senior boys 2A soccer earlier this month.
