Kodiaks futsal gearing up

By Dale Woodard - Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2022.

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s futsal team is a win away from the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Championship.
The Kodiaks women, meanwhile, need a little win and some favourable math.
Either way, the Kodiaks head back to Ambrose University in Calgary Saturday looking to clinch that spot in the ACAC championship and join the three other men’s and women’s teams who have already qualified for the event, which will be held March 19 at Kings University in Edmonton.
After going 2-0 in the first qualifier two weeks ago, the Kodiaks men need a win and they’re in.
The women’s team will need a victory over the Ambrose Lions to start and then defeat the Medicine Hat Rattlers by more than two goals in order to advance.
The Rattlers won the first women’s meeting between the two teams 3-2.
On the men’s side, the numbers game is a little simpler.
“They need to win the first game against Ambrose and then it’s done,” said Kodiaks head coach Sean Carey. “They just need the first ‘W’ and then it won’t matter what happens against Medicine Hat. If we win the first game, that puts us to nine points.”
The Kodiaks men beat the Lions 10-4 in the opening weekend of qualifiers.
“We have four or five really strong senior guys and we have four or five strong rookies,” said Carey. “So if one of them isn’t working we can roll the other group out. We made a bit of a tactical change against them after about four or five minutes (last game) and it flipped the whole game around. I think we go into it knowing what we need to do. We just have to make sure we take the chances when they come. Both goalies are having a great past two weeks at practice. We’re really ready for this and the boys are hungry and want it. We’re excited.”
Kodiaks goaltender Easton Demers played both games in the first round
Trey Lukye wasn’t available the first weekend, but will be back this weekend and will get the start against the Lions in the first game, said Carey.
The Kodiaks women need to beat Ambrose in the first game to set up a winner-take-all game against the Rattlers.
The Kodiak beat the Lions 5-2 two weekends ago.
“We’re even in goal difference with Medicine Hat right, we have a plus-two,” said Carey. “It goes head-to-head first. So if we beat them by more than one, we’ll win the head-to-head. If we beat them by one, it goes down to goals-for and against and we’re tied with that one right now.”
A Kodiaks loss to Ambrose would mean Medicine Hat would have to lose both games on the weekend.
“It’s in their own hands,” said Carey. “We’ve been working on more of the offensive side of the game to get them clicking going forward. We’ve been trying a new system to see if it works. We’ve gone over it at every practice, so I’m hoping the girls buy in. They seem to have. But in the golf analogy, they might be gripping the club a little too hard. We might just need to loosen them up and say ‘Look, go and play. Just go and play and let your instincts take over and where we get to and if we feel like we need to change it, let’s do it.’ The girls are good enough players. We’ve got a bunch of all-stars playing, so we should be able to pull this one out of the hat. I’m fully confident that they can do it, it’s just a matter of whether they believe it.”
The rest of the field has already been established for the ACAC championship, featuring teams from the the Central, Edmonton and North Divisions in addition to the South,
The SAIT Trojans, Portage College Voyageurs and Kings University Eagles are in the men’s division.
“Honestly, I think we have a really good chance on the guys’ side if they can play well,” said Carey.
“The girls are in tougher, because the girls will have SAIT, who are really good and play in a futsal league all winter, too.”
The NAIT Ooks and Fort McMurray Keyano Huskies round out the women’s side.
“The big goal is to get there and then you never know what happens when you get there,” said Carey.
On Saturday, the Kodiaks men play the Lions at 12:15 p.m. and the Rattlers at 3:15 p.m.
The women take on Ambrose at 11 a.m. and Medicine Hat at 2 p.m.

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