Lake City Secondary School boys soccer will be competing at provincials Nov. 21 to Nov. 23.
The Falcons earned a berth at the provincial after capturing the North Central District AAA Zone championship in Prince George.
In the final game, they won 1-0 against North Peace Secondary.
“I never thought we could beat North Peace Secondary,” said Falcons coach Sean Glanville, explaining they had lost to North Peace 6-1 in the opening contest of the tournament.
“The Falcons went into the final knowing they were capable of a much better effort in the rematch,” Glanville said, adding they played an “incredible” game and followed the plan perfectly to deliver the upset. "You could see how the other team was more and more frustrated."
At last year’s zones, North Peace beat LCSS in all three games, he added.
Austin Ludwig scored the opening goal for the Falcons five minutes in, outrunning the defence and rounding the goalie before sliding in the eventual game winner.
Glanville said LCSS played a defensive game, and the entire squad was fully committed to team defence.
“We are a very small team and gave up a lot of goals on corner kicks and set pieces due to our size and strength in the first game Monday vs NPSS. We came up with a new game plan to defend the dead ball situations and play much more physical and inspired. We looked like a completely different team form the previous day.”
Falcons captain Mion Kinugasa played central defence.
“His leadership and skill was a vital part at keeping the NPSS attack at bay,” Glanville said. “When the game was over, and the whistle blew the boys were going crazy and Mion fell to his knees and started tearing up. It almost felt like a surreal moment.”
Mion was the MVP of the tournament, which Glanville said was well-deserved because he’s given so much to the team and been playing since Grade 9.
“Winning a final as such a heavy underdog was awesome and something this group will remember for a long time.”
Glanville said Owen Kinley played an important role matching up the entire game with a NPSS top player and keeping him off the scoresheet and goalkeeper Jayden Fradsham had a “flawless” performance in net including a point-blank save to earn the shutout.
The tournament featured four teams including NPSS, Prince George Secondary and South Peace Secondary from Dawson Creek. LCSS opened round robin play Monday morning with the 6-1 loss to North Peace and then won game two 4-1 versus South Peace.
On Tuesday morning they were in a must-win situation with PGSS to advance to the gold medal game. After falling behind 1-0 early on, LCSS offence started firing on all cylinders and scored four unanswered goals including two from Cain Olson and Olen Grady and Jensen Bauerosche adding singles. They would go on to a 4-2 victory and earn another crack at NPSS in the final.
“Standouts from the weekend included two rookie players Ty Thiessen and Tobin Kruus who played fantastic. Fullbacks Seth Cahoose, Manav Pooni and Kangmin Kwan were also vital to the defensive effort. Other members of the Falcons who made strong contributions include Fariq Muhammad, Kyan Aung, Robert Palmantier and Saksham Sood.”
The Provincial AAA Championships take place at Burnaby West Soccer Complex November 21-23.
Williams Lake ended a long drought without a boy’s zone soccer championship, with their last title coming at the 2014 AAA boys coached by Brian Hansen, Glaville said.
