Crusaders senior boys soccer finishes second at 2A provincials

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“Second [place] is a good one but it still stings a little bit,” Crusaders head coach Shalen Fox said. “I felt we were the better team. We were playing hungry. It was just hard to defend in the wind…In the second half, they had two extra players and that was the difference I honestly think. But they kept their cool. They were playing with the same ref, they were playing in the exact same conditions and they were able to make the adjustments better.”

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Fox admitted two of his players reacted the wrong way and let their emotions get the best of them when they were handed the two red cards.

At the time, the score was 1-0 Humboldt and the Crusaders still had most of the second half left with the wind in their favour.

“It’s still a solid result but there’s a lot of what-ifs, what-ifs going on,” Fox said. “And that’s what you expect. As long as we learn we have to keep our emotions in check. We still had chances to score down two players so the guys didn’t give up. When you’re pushing forward down two guys, you’re going to leave yourself even more vulnerable in the back and sometimes we had one or two defenders in the back and that’s how they got their goals.”

Heading into provincials, Fox had mentioned that staying positive was going to be a key.

“We had a positive attitude for the most part,” he said. “The first two games were good.

“We stayed focused all the way through [the semifinal]. It was 6-0 and they got their lone goal in the final minute or two…They definitely learned from the quarter-final game.”

The Crusaders will graduate five Grade 12 players and because they carried a large roster of 17, Fox said they should be competitive again next season.

“We’ve got quite a few 10s and 11s that were playing so I think we’ll still be in good hands,” he said. “We’ll still be able to compete, which is good. Making it to the finals, you know exactly what to expect.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11