The Correlieu Clan soccer team made their annual pilgrimage to Burnaby to take on the bog dogs from down south in provincials.
The Clan fought through five matches in three days last weekend, ending up in fourteenth in the sixteen team tournament.
Rob McGregor, the team’s coach, was happy with how the team performed in the tournament.
“We were in a pretty tough pool,” he said.
That pool included Dr. Charles Best, who would go on to prove their namesake by winning the tournament.
Derek Scott was chosen from the team for the Commissioners 11.
The team started the tournament last Thursday against the top ranked team in Vancouver, Kitsilano, to whom they lost 1-0.
The Clan fought hard against the southern team, but lost a single goal in the first half they couldn’t gain back, despite some nice chances.
Konrad Teetzen in goal made sure the Clan didn’t lose another goal.
“Teetzen made some outstanding, athletic saves,” McGregor said.
Later on that Friday, the team faced off against Handsworth, losing 5-0.
Correlieu got off to a slow start, with three students slowed by nagging injuries, said McGregor, which allowed Handsworth to get out in front. Then they fell into some penalty trouble in the game, garnering quite a few yellow cards, including one inside the box that resulted in a penalty kick, which hampered the teams ability to play their hardest.
The Clan faced off against the eventual tournament winners in their third game of the tournament, early Friday.
“They were a quick, tough disciplined team,” McGregor said.
“They were probably the most disciplined team we’ve ever played against.”
Charles Best proved their skill with a 6-0 win over the Quesnel squad.
The Clan came back after the difficult game, beating Oak Bay later that day, 3-2 after penalty kicks.
The game itself was a back-and-forth affair, with Correlieu opening the scoring early in the first half.
“We had a really good game,” McGregor said.
“We took it to them in the first.”
After Correlieu opened, Oak Bay came back to tie it up, which was followed by a Correlieu goal that just snuck in. Leading into the final ten minutes, it looked like Correlieu would take the game in regulation time, but that wasn’t to be as an Oak Bay player got the all important equalizer to push the game beyond.
After regulation time ran out, the game went into two seven and a half minute OT periods that saw no resolution, which pushed the game to penalty kicks.
The game stayed tied through four rounds of PKs, with every goal met with a goal by the other side and every miss met with the other side’s miss.
Teetzen once again shone in the PKs, making some nice saves as the goalie and coming out to make the final, game winning, kick in the fifth round.
“It was quite a highlight for the kids and for me as well,” said McGregor.
A very tired Correlieu Clan faced off against Dover Bay, who were ranked number one on Vancouver Island, to a 9-1 final in favour of the Bay.
With a team whittled to inexperienced players due to the previously nagging injuries coming back to sideline players, the team didn’t do well.
A tired Correlieu team, combined with Keegan Lang, who received the Golden Boot, saw Dover Bay run the score as far as they could, passing to Lang to cushion his lead for the Gold Boot.
Despite the rough record, McGregor said the tournament was a good experience for the team. Now, he’s looking forward to next year’s season, with his eyes on a few boys coming out of QJS. Though he is optimistic about next year’s team, he knows through experience that poachers from down south can come in and steal a starter out from under him.
McGregor and the team are very thankful for the sponsors that helped the team get down to Burnaby to take their game to a higher level.
