Silver medal for Westman soccer

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Published on Friday, August 19, 2016

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

A strong effort by the Westman junior boys’ soccer team came up just a bit short at the Power Smart Manitoba Summer Games in Steinbach. The club faced Team Eastman in the gold medal game on Sunday, Aug. 14. Westman held on to a 1-0 lead until the final minute of regulation, when Eastman scored to force overtime. Both teams would then score during extra time to make it 2-2 heading into penalty kicks. Eastman would finally clinch the gold medal, beating Westman 4-3 on penalties. Camillo Rodriguez scored both goals for Westman in their silver-medal showing.

Kaiten Critchlow and Diego Rodriguez served as co-coaches for team Westman. Critchlow said that the performance from both teams in the gold medal game was very impressive. “It’s one of the best games I’ve ever seen played at a youth level,” noted Critchlow, “Both teams were so talented and they left it all out there on the field. [Team Westman] went to Steinbach hoping to bring home the gold. While we didn’t accomplish that feat, the players should still be extremely proud of what they did during the event, because they represented the region well.”

As for the Westman girls team, after a strong showing in the round robin portion of the games with two wins and a draw, the team was tied for first place with Eastman. A tiebreaker was required, which ended even at 0-0 after regulation. This contest ended up going to penalty kicks to decide the victor. After five rounds, it was Eastman who came out the victor, by a 2-1 score.

Westman was unable to rebound from that disappointing loss and ended up dropping a 1-0 decision in the bronze medal game on Saturday, Aug. 13, against Norman.