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United girls do well in Saskatoon tourney

The U10 Yorkton Rush Girls soccer team had a stellar showing at their first tournament of the season held in Saskatoon over the weekend June 17-19.
Soccer

The U10 Yorkton Rush Girls soccer team had a stellar showing at their first tournament of the season held in Saskatoon over the weekend June 17-19. Winning three of four round robin games placed Yorkton in the final against a strong Saskatoon team, where the Yorkton Rush came away with the silver medal.

The first game was a fantastic start to the competition as the Rush defeated Eastside Maroon 9-2, with forward Sophie Smith scoring seven of the nine goals and Kahlan Stromberg and Lily Johnson adding singles. In the second game, the Rush faced SFG, the team they would eventually play in the final, and lost 3-0.  The team regained their fire with a win in the third game where superb goal keeping and a strong defensive presence lead to a 4-0 victory.  Smith slotted three goals into the net, and star defender Hadiza Kasim added another.  Mila Kicenko recorded the well-deserved shutout.

The impressive team play didn’t end, as the Rush achieved a 2-0 win in the last round robin game against Lloydminster.  Kicenko came away with the shutout again, while Smith slotted both goals.  

Three wins and one loss placed the Rush in the final against Saskatoon SFG. Try as they might, the Rush could not continue their streak, and claimed second place with a 7-1 loss.   Hadiza Kasim recorded the lone goal.

The Under 10 girls’ team was missing several of their stronger players. Addisyn Jakubiec and Sara Switzer were both asked to move up and play with the Under 12 girls for the weekend and both did a fantastic job all tournament. Addisyn played with great pace as usual and Sara added some solid defense of the field. Angela Fetsch, Madison Bowtell, Avery Bond, Halima Kasim, and Kirsi Kitch are all still Under 10 players playing in a higher division. All five of these girls did a remarkable job playing against opponents much bigger than them and holding their own. The Under 10 girls will prepare now to compete in Summerfest July 8-10 in Regina.

The under 12 girls opened the tournament with a 1 to 1 tie against Saskatoon Eastside. Natalie Walkington notched the goal for United. Next up were a very strong side from Swift Current who ended up being tournament Champions. The girls battled hard but were out sized and out muscled and ended up on the wrong end of a 5 to 0 score. The Yorkton team needed to win their next game to advance to the Semi-final. They came ready to play, winning the game 3 -1 on the strength of goals by Natalie Walkington and a pair from Tatum Borys. In the Semi-final the girls met Regina FC and although they controlled most of the play, came up on the losing end of a 2-1 score. Natalie Walkington scored her fourth goal of the tournament in this game. Some of the U12 players will be joining the U14 girls as they contest the provincial tournament in Lloydminster July 1 -3.

Both Coach Jeanne Fetsch and Coach Bailey Inglis agree tournaments provide a great opportunity to use and develop skills in a more competitive setting.   “ It’s about the development of soccer skill at this age,” says Coach Inglis, “I’m happy we were able to experience some success on the field, but I’m even more happy to see the improvement of individual players and our team play over the weekend. We’re excited to keep developing the potential in each and every one of the girls”.