HUSKIES FEAST ON DEPLETED VOYAGEURS
LAC LA BICHE – The script was an all too familiar one for the Portage College Voyageurs on Saturday. Have a tough first half, play much better in the second, and have a player carted off and taken to hospital with a serious injury. Rinse and repeat.
Fresh off securing their first point of the season, a 3-3 draw with Concordia in Edmonton on Friday, the Voyageurs returned home to face the Keyano College Huskies on Saturday at the Bold Center Soccer Field. After taking a team photo and honouring three graduating players who won't be back next year – Garrison and Greg Wiebe and James Ruhiga – the Voyageurs took the field and were immediately on their heels, trailing 1-0 by the seven-minute mark and 5-0 after 30 minutes.
"You always try and start strong but at this level even the slightest differences in overall ability are noticeable and it looks like we're are a second half team but that comes with experience," said Portage Head Coach Kika Mukuninwa after the game. "We have four or five guys who are in their first years out of high school who have never played at this level so it is a learning curve for them but they've gotten more comfortable."
As their head coach noted, the second half was a better story, with Tata Mugisha finding the back of the net in the 57th minute, sandwiched between four more Keyano goals and another serious injury to a Voyageur regular. Final score: Huskies 9 Voyageurs 1. James Bartha put on a scoring clinic, netting five goals, while Karl Tronche added an assist and played a strong match to nab Player of the Game (POG) honours for the Huskies. Akil Johnson grabbed the POG award for the Voyageurs.
With their soccer season over, Mukuninwa is hoping his troops can get healthy, find the positives in a tough year, and come back ready to build off of 2021-2022's successful run to the ACAC Futsal playoffs.
"The guys, they get confidence and it shows as we pick up our game," he said. "They had a good season and now we'll just get ready for Futsal training and mend up the guys that are broken…We'll get there."