Kodiaks wrapping up shortened regular season

By Dale Woodard on October 9, 2021.

As quickly as it began, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s and women’s soccer teams wrap up their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference seasons Sunday.

The 3-2 Kodiaks men host the Ambrose Lions Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Servus Sports Centre, followed by the 4-1 Kodiaks women taking on the University of Alberta- Augustana Vikings at 4 p.m.

The COVID-19 pandemic cutting the regular season to six games made it a sprint for his teams, but Kodiaks co-coach Sean Carey gave both teams credit for keeping pace.

“I think they dealt with it really well, he said.

“For the most part, in terms of results and things, they certainly speak for themselves. I think the guys obviously got off to a slower start and then the penny dropped and they realized they needed to put their heads down and get going. Overall, they’ve responded well from what we’ve asked them.”

The same can be said for the girls, said Carey.

“We figured we would be fighting for one-two in the South, so that’s what we’re doing right now,” said Carey, whose team sits behind the undefeated SAIT Trojans (5-0). “I feel like not a lot changed, apart from the fact we didn’t have the two-game weekends very often. We were so used to that. But I’m happy with the way they responded. The boys are coming into form. I think there are teams that probably don’t want to play the guys at the moment.”

The Kodiaks trail the Trojans by three points as of Friday afternoon.

SAIT improved to 5-0 Friday afternoon and moved three points up on the Kodiaks thanks to a 2-0 win over the Red Deer Queens in Red Deer. The Trojans can finish 6-0 with a win over the Olds Broncos Sunday in Olds.

No matter what happens, Carey said the women will look to take care of their own business and bring the same entertaining, high-scoring soccer they’ve displayed over the past month.

“Augustana is our next game and we just have to focus on that and make sure we do the things we’ve been working on all year and go and play some nice football for people to watch,” he said. “That’s what we said this year, we want to be entertaining. We’re getting some nice crowds out at the college field and we’ve said ‘Let’s put a show on. Let’s put some entertainment forward.’ If we win 5-4 or lose 5-4, the girls are going to go home saying ‘That was a lot of fun.’ That’s been our mindset this year, hence the girls scoring lots of goals and playing some very attacking-minded football.”

The Kodiak men sit in the third in the South Division

Kodiak men are in third place as of Friday, one point back of 3-1-1 Red Deer and three up on the fourth-place Medicine Hat Rattlers (2-3-0).

Red Deer lost 4-0 to the South-leading SAIT Trojans Friday and now face Medicine Hat Sunday in Medicine Hat.

“If Red Deer doesn’t win Sunday and we beat Ambrose we’ll finish second,” said Carey. “So we’ll jump up a spot providing we win and Red Deer doesn’t win any of their two games. Even a tie won’t be good enough for Red Deer.”

Still, Carey noted an even ACAC in the shortened season.

“Everybody on any given day in this league can beat anyone,” he said. “SAIT is obviously a little bit tougher. They’re a good team this year and obviously hosting nationals they took some quality players. So they are the class of the South right now. So we’ll just have to see what prevails for them in the next couple of games, too.”

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