Sunday’s final in the St. Albert Men’s Soccer League has been rescheduled after lightning forced the postponement of Thursday’s semifinal between Chester City and Arsenal.
Their playoff match will now take place in the time slot for Sunday’s final. Kickoff is 3 p.m. at the St. Albert Soccer Association’s premier pitch.
The winner will play SA United for the league championship. The final is tentatively slated for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Riel Park turf field.
Before the weather turned nasty Thursday, the semifinal between United and Strike Force went ahead as scheduled. In the 2-0 win by United, Ryan Clark and Cam Allam scored their third playoffs and Alistair Todd made a couple of big saves for the shutout. J.R. Rafols was also rock solid in the midfield.
Paris Singer was a threat for Strike Force all game, along with forwards Manuel Zarate and Alfonso (Poncho) Vasquez.
United is 13-2-1 going into the final after finishing second in league play at 9-2-1.
Strike Force was coming off a 2-1 loss to Chester in the last game in the group A round robin playoff draw. The score was more one-sided than it showed. After having the vast majority of possession in the first half, Chester scored early in the second half through a direct free kick by Genc Pllana. He later set up Abe Hasanaj’s goal with 20 minutes remaining. A great individual effort by Vasquez with a few minutes to play cut the lead in half.
Strike Force placed third in the league table at 9-3 and finished 10-5 overall.
Chester is 12-2 going into the semifinal after capturing their first league pennant in team history with a 10-2 record.
Arsenal is 6-6-3 after placed fourth at 4-5-3.
Chester and United will also represent the league at the tier III provincials, Sept. 10 to 12 in Calgary, as the top two teams in the regular season.
Thursday’s lightning strikes also forced the premier B division match between the St. Albert Impact Rangers and Roots United to end sooner than expected.
They played the first half and eight seconds of the second half, before the game was called. It was delayed for a few minutes to see if the storm would pass but the lightning only got worse. The score was 1-1 at the time. If they played 60 minutes, it would have been an official game.
The Rangers (5-2-6) and Roots (3-8-3) will replay the Edmonton District Soccer Association contest Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Albert Soccer Association’s premier pitch.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, the Rangers host Africana FC (5-6-3).
In the round robin schedule the Rangers finished seventh with three wins, two losses and six ties. The top six teams went on to compete for the pennant in the A division. The remaining six teams formed the B division to determine the four teams to be relegated into division one next year.
The Rangers’ top goal scorers are Mark McQuaid with nine and Emmett Keenan with eight.
Mavericks 09 clinched their first pennant in team history and a berth in the tier IV provincials after beating Gini’s 8-0 in Thursday’s rain-shortened match in the St. Albert Women’s Soccer Association.
The division one leaders improved to 16-1 with one game to go before the Sept. 10 to 12 provincials kick off in Calgary.
The Mavericks took advantage of their undermanned opponent as Alison Johanessen scored four times and Jen Bruinsma tallied twice. Mel Johanessen and Lindsey Hornung notched singles. Posting the shutout was Kristin Jarock, who joined the team in July. It was her first full game, after playing a half in each of the last couple of matches.
Meanwhile, Bruinsma took over the division scoring lead from Suzanne Gaetz of the Morinville Ladies with 15 after her two-goal performance Thursday. The latest count for Gaetz was 13 goals.
The Mavericks have been lights-out offensively with a staggering 92 goals in only 17 games. They are also stingy defensively with 12 shutouts while giving up only seven goals.
Twenty-one coaches from across the country are attending a week-long national B license coach course, currently under way at the St. Albert Soccer Association.
Mornings consist of lectures and classroom instruction and in the afternoons the coaches take to the Riel Park fields for hands-on training.
The course, hosted by the Canadian Soccer Association, wraps up Sunday.
