The Canmore Collegiate Crusaders boys soccer squad is ready to defend its South Central Zone title this Friday and Saturday (June 3-4) at home after wrapping up another undefeated season.
Crusaders head coach Gary Anderson shared a post-game speech this week following his team’s third consecutive undefeated season in the Foothills Soccer League.
Anderson said he didn’t know if the league’s competition had gotten weaker, or if his high school team had become that much stronger.
He leaned toward the latter.
It would be hard to argue with what Anderson said as the young men in green and yellow have dominated all season and captured a fifth-consecutive league title with a 5-0 victory over the Foothills Composite Falcons, Monday (May 30).
Jackson Howatt scored twice, and adding one goal each were River Hutchison-Brewster, Ryan Statham, and Seve Solana.
The Crusaders opened scoring in the first minute of the match when Hutchison-Brewster darted in and found the back of the net.
The goal was quickly followed by the second CCHS goal, scored by Statham
After the pair of goals early on, an evenly contested stretch ensued until Crusader Kota Postma saved what was almost a sure out-of-bounds play in the offensive zone and fed Howatt in front of the net, who then made no mistake beating the Falcons keeper.
In the second half, the Falcons “brought it” and gave Crusader goalkeeper Riley Millar the most action he’s seen all season.
“I liked it (Monday), it was more fun for me rather than being bored,” said Millar.
A penalty drawn on Howatt resulted in a penalty kick for the Crusaders. Solana took the kick and made a surgical strike for a 4-0 lead.
Howatt added a late goal as the Crusaders cruised to the victory and a fifth consecutive championship.
The league title is an accolade that is familiar to the team, but Anderson said when the soccer program was created, they envisioned passing along the skills needed to get here.
“When we made up our minds that we were going to do this eight years ago, the coaches committed to teaching these guys a very high level of sports that they’ve never seen before in this valley,” said Anderson.
Anderson credited assistant coaches Kevin Gregory and Paul Lynch in helping develop the program.
“They’re very knowledgeable soccer guys who commit a lot of time to these boys.” said Anderson.
Zones in Canmore this weekend
The Crusaders will not have to travel far in their latest campaign to crown themselves as back-to-back zone champs.
CCHS will play all games at Millennium Field this Friday (June 3) beginning at 9 a.m. Their first match is against the tough Bow Valley Bobcats from Cochrane.
The other teams in CCHS’ pool include the Strathmore Spartans and Springbank Phoenix.
“Our guys really like a hard, physical game,” said Anderson. “That’s going to be important, we’re going to play some good teams in the zone tournaments.”
The eight-team tournament will be played in two pools. The other zone matches take place at Lions Park on Friday.
On Saturday (June 4) the top two teams in each pool square off and the finals take place at 2 p.m. at Millennium Field.
In a lot of ways, the zone tournament is a “survival of the fittest” type of competition.
“One of the many roles (coach Gregory) plays is our fitness instructor and hopefully that’s going to help us in the zones because it’s going to be a soccer marathon,” said Anderson.
“The bigger picture is we have a really special group of seniors on our team. All have been with us for four years and they’re all high quality guys and really the strength of our team.”
In his final season as a Crusader, goalkeeper Millar wants to win another championship. Last season, Millar helped his team secure victory as he stood between the pipes in a zone final penalty kick shoot out.
“I’m excited,” Millar said. “Hopefully I’ll get a little bit more action than what we’ve been doing … Our first game is against Bow Valley, which is the leader of the other league around Cochrane. That’s going to be the hardest game. I think.”
A key injury heading into zones is to Crusader Ty Godfrey, a prolific scorer and playmaker for the team.
“For the most part we’re pretty healthy … Godfrey, who is a fantastic player for us, hopefully he’ll be OK for zones,” said Anderson.
